DB. J. MUEIE ON THE FORM AND STEUCTUEE OF THE MANATEE. 131 



specimen of Manatee was the mother of our Society's young male, as attested by 

 Herr Kappler, of Surinam, who transmitted it. The length of the female mounted 

 skin I ascertained to be 122 inches, therefore twice and a half the length of the young 

 animal possibly slk or eight months old. Another stuffed male specimen at Stuttgart 

 measures 94 inches. Both the above are doubtless stretched to their fullest extent ; 

 still one is justified in assuming the adult Manatus to be from 9 to 10 feet long. 

 Comparing this with Steller's account of Bhytina, it appears that the extinct northern 

 form exceeded the existing American one in the proportion of two and a half to one, or 

 something equivalent to the difiierence betwixt the young and old of the latter. 



3. Weight. — According to Mr. Greey the entire carcass of the Zoological Society's 

 female when weighed immediately after death on board ship was 228 lb. That of the 

 young male as ascertained by myself was 61 lb. 



4. Colour. — This has been defined by different writers as grey, bluish grey, and steel- 

 grey. It is indeed difficult to specify the precise tone of colouring, which is a kind of 

 neutral tint, varying according to the condition of the skin. When the epidermis is 

 dry, the colour approaches to a dull iron-grey ; but when moist, it appears more of a 

 dull black or sooty hue. It is best compared with that of the Elephant, to which in 

 other respects it oifers strong resemblances, as shall afterwards be mentioned. 



The anterior truncated portion of the muzzle, projecting part of the palate, and 

 lower lips are paler than the body, namely of a dull yellow. 



II. The Integument, its Appendages and Subjacent Textures. 



1. The Skin. — The coarse, hairy hide of the Manatee is one of those external features 

 which at once arrest attention, and claim for it kindred with Pachyderms rather than 

 with its aquatic congeners the smooth-skinned Cetsel 



The construction of the extraordinary-looking truncated muzzle having been com- 

 mented on by Baron von Humboldt, and freshly described by Professors Stannius and 

 Vrolik, 1 need therefore but cursorily allude to its dermal minutise. The anterior 

 face, and particularly its under surface, has a very warty-looking, but regular, pitted 

 structure. In some parts the arrangement of the furrows and ridges is of a cross-linear 

 kind; and in the neighbourhood of the bristly projections (afterwards to be noted) the 

 puckered skin assumes a stellate sculpturing. The much smaller-sized lower lip has 

 three or four regular transversely arched ridges and deepish intervening furrows, and in 

 front of these some half a dozen shallow linear grooves. The under surface of the 

 bulging chm is altogether smoother than the muzzle ; but yet its dermis has a tessellated 

 superficies. The short throat has deep transverse wrinkles. 



The various tegumentary folds, though passed over by authors, are worthy of special 

 consideration. On the upper surface of the head, and well nigh obscured neck, several 

 deep transverse wrinkles extend in arches from side to side. 



The furrow immediately behind the muzzle is much the deepest, and especially so 



