772 iin. E. E. AUSTEN ON A llECENT ZOOLOGICAL [Jlllie 1 0, 



worth elucidating. The apj)earance of the pink form as it rises 

 to blow, seen against the ])ea-soup3' background of the waters of 

 the Amazon, is most striking. The Sotalia is black on the upper 

 half of tlie body, which is all tliat 1 ever managed to see of it. It 

 is stated by Ijates ('The Naturalist on tlie liivcr Amazons,' Glh 

 ed.p. 75) that the natives call the larger species {Inia yeoffroyensis) 

 the "Boiito," while they term tiio smaller one (Sotalia) the " Tii- 

 euxi." According to one of our Brazilian pilots, Bates has trans- 

 posed the native names ; nevertheless I am inclined to think that 

 the pilot himself must have been wrong, as it is difficult to believe 

 that Bates, writing after eleven years' experience of the Amazon, 

 could have made such a blunder. The pilot in question also stated 

 that the large Dolphins (Inia) will attack a man in the water, 

 while the small ones (Suialia) will defend him by making an on- 

 slaught on the aggressors. If there is any truth in this statement 

 it may be that the small Dolphin sometimes attacks the larger one, 

 just as, according to Mr. Hudson (' The Naturalist in La Plata '), 

 the Puma attacks the Jaguar whenever he meets him ; but 

 personally I never noticed anything of tlie sort, although I fre- 

 quently saw the two species in close proximity in the same furo. 

 I may add that Bates (' Naturalist on the Amazons,' 6th ed. 

 p. 296) alludes to the number of fables that are told about the 

 large Amazonian Dolphin, though he considers that " it is probable 

 these did not originate with the Indians, but with the Portuguese 

 colonists." The difference between the two species in their method 

 of rising to the surface to blow is very noticeable and, as it seems 

 to me, is not very clearly stated by Bates (ojy. cit. p. 75). The 

 large black or pink Dolphin (Inia (/epffroyensis) thrusts itself 

 horizontally along the top of the water, usually showing the crest 

 of its flat head first, and then nearly the entire length of the back, 

 including the low dorsal fin ; it then dives gently down head fore- 

 most. The small species (Sotalia) arches over out of the water, 

 showing tlie curve pf the back and the dorsal fin. Sir Wm. Flower 

 was extremely anxious that I should, if possible, bring home a 

 specimen of Inia c/eoffroyensis, or indeed of any one of the Ama- 

 zonian Dolphins, and accordingly 1 made many attempts to shoot 

 one but without success. The fishermen cannot be induced to 

 harpoon them, and eventually we came to the conclusion that the 

 only practicable means of securing a specimen woukl be to have a 

 couple of big seine nets specially constructed for the pur])ose and 

 to shoot them across one of the narrow furos, when the Dolphins 

 might easily be captured. 



In the creeks running out of the Rio Negro below Manaos I 

 found Manatees (Manatus sp. inc.) not uncommon, and on more 

 than one occasion 1 saw one make a tremendous commotion on the 

 top of the water. In one instance the neck of the animal seemed 

 to appear first, and it then turned " head over heels " as it were, 

 and I distinctly saw the disk -shaped tail strike tJie water. This 

 liveliness on the part of the Manatee in its natural state is 

 perhaps worth noting, as in captivity it usually appears to be a 



