DR. J. MURIE ON THE MANATEE. 45 
article being already stretched beyond my original intention leads me to forego speaking 
of the affinities, which, as already mentioned, have attracted considerable attention, the 
more so from the recent discoveries of fossil Sirenia by Professors Owen, Van Beneden?, 
and Flower*®. On this subject I hope, in another memoir now in hand, to have more 
to say*. 
DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES. 
PLATE V. 
Attitudes of Manatee when in Tank of Aquarium. 
Fig. 1. Contour which the Manatee assumes as it rises to the surface of the water, and 
just before breathing. 
Fig. 2. Muzzle and part of the head in three-quarter view, in the act of dilating the 
nostrils, the after portion of the body sinking. 
. Appearance as descending after respiratory effort, the body in this instance 
slightly rolled to the right. 
Fig. 4. A view more from behind as the creature lazily turns over or affects a semi- 
rolling movement. 
Fig. 5. A very common attitude assumed—the body bent in complete arch, and the 
animal resting thus perfectly quiescent for a long while at a stretch. 
Fig. 6. The body less arched by shoulders and head being higher, but tail bent acutely. 
View three quarters from behind. It rests in this position frequently, and 
quietly remains long so. 
Fig. 7. The Manatee in mid-water perfectly motionless and dozing or sleeping. 
Fig. 8. A very common attitude taken, viz. with body and head nearly horizontal, and 
the curved tail resting on the bottom of the tank; such position adopted 
both when awake and dozing. : 
Fig. 9. Outstretched in sound slumber at the bottom of its tank. 
7 
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1 Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. 1875, p. 100, pl. iii. 
2 Bull. de l’Acad. Roy. Belg. 1875. 3 Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. 1874, p. 1, pl. i. 
4 Quite at the last moment, while this sheet is passing through my hands, I find that Mr. Alston (vol. i. part 4, 
p. 92, Mammals, of Salyin and Godman’s ‘ Biologia Centrali-Americana’) tefers to Prof. Flower as stating that 
the Brighton-Aquarium specimens never rest on their tail. Chapman's (/.c.) and the present specimens 
certainly did; and I myself feel satisfied, from a consideration of the animal's habit of frequenting and dozing 
in shallow lagoons, along with a study of its tail-construction, that the curving-under (see Pl. Y. fig. 8) is a 
natural and not abnormal condition, though I am not prepared to state that every animal will revert to it when 
in confinement. Has the tank at Brighton with constant current of water not something to do with difference 
of attitude ? 
