[ 137 1 



III. Notes on the Manatee (Manatus atnericanus) recently living in the Society's 

 Gardens. By K. H. Gaerod, M.A., F.Z.S., Prosector to the Society. 



EeceiTed October 11th, 1875. Bead Novemter 16th, 1875. 



[Plates XXVIII.-XXX.] 



U NTIL the arrival, on August the 6th of this year, of a living female Manatee in the 

 Society's Gardens, very few Europeans had had the opportunity of seeing a live Sirenian ; 

 and those who had previously been so fortunate, had not, in most cases, been able to 

 observe it under the favourable circumstances of position afforded by a small shallow 

 pond approachable on all sides. In this pond it was not the least diihcult to watch the 

 creature minutely whilst it was feeding, as well as to make other notes of its habits 

 which would necessarily be overlooked by those who meet it in its native haunts. 



Dr. Murie, in his valuable monograph on the Manatee ^, justly remarks, that " in 

 museums it is customary to see such bloated over-stuffed specimens, that from them, 

 as well as figures extant, an unfair idea of the configuration is obtained." Dr. Murie 's 

 own illustrations, with their beautiful textural details, represent the animal much 

 more accurately. The only fault in them, if it is a fault, is rather in the opposite 

 direction to that above indicated by him. His specimens were dead and preserved ; 

 they had evidently shrunk slightly, the living animal appearing a little more rounded 

 and presenting less well-marked skin-folds. 



The following are the measurements of the animal which I have had the opportunity 



of dissecting, taken almost immediately after death : — 



inches. 

 Total length 80 



Circumference (3 inches in front of umbilicus) 50 



Greatest breadth of tail (8 inches fiom end) 19 



Umbilicus to anus 21 



Vulva to anus 4"25 



Circumference at root of tail (7 inches beyond anus) . . . 28'75 



Length of tail-flapper 19'5 



Length of fore limb 14 



From eye to front of snout 4'75 



Breadth of snout halfway down 5 '5 



Height of snout at middle line 3 



From ear to ear over head . 8'75 



From eye to eye above head 6'4 



From ear to eye on one side 5*75 



' Trane. Zool. Soo. viii. p. 127. 



VOL. X. — PAET III. No. 1. — October 1st, 1877. u 



