Cetacea, 7131 



once " alarmed by a terrific howling which resembled the roaring of a 

 bull, but much stronger, which seemed to come from the neighbouring 

 reeds." This was near the Swan River ; and it may be remarked that 

 Mr. Fraser, in his description of the Swan River, when it was surveyed 

 by Capt. Stirling in 1826, notices that " while attending to a boat on 

 the river I distinctly heard the bellowing of some huge animal similar 

 to that of an ox, from an extensive marsh further up the river." Peron 

 justly remarks that " this terrific roar could only belong to one of those 

 great animals which the Indian Ocean nourishes within its seas ; but 

 of all those with which we are acquainted the dugon alone presents 

 analogous dimensions to the terrific noise which it makes." Now the 

 Arabs described to Dr. Ruppell that the duyong of the Red Sea had 

 a feeble voice ! 



The Australian duyong is met with on the north coast of that island- 

 continent,within the great barrier reef, at Swan River on the western side, 

 and at Moreton Bay on the eastern. It certainly appears to be a dis- 

 tinct species from that of the Malayan Seas ; but additional species 

 to these two are less satisfactorily established, and the total disappear- 

 ance of these animals from the vicinity of the Mascarine Islands is 

 worthy of attention, and may be borne in mind with reference to the 

 extraordinary fact of the seeming extinction of the Rytinus Stelleri in 

 the North Pacific. We want information, however, respecting duyongs 

 at the various coral groups of the Indian Ocean, within ten or twelve 

 degrees of the Equator. The same species may well inhabit the whole 

 of them. It is remarkable that the Malays consider that two species 

 of these animals exist.* 



I am not aware that it is yet generally known to zoologists that the 

 H. australis differs conspicuously in external colouring from H. indicus, 

 but such appears to be the fact from the following notice : — 



" In Moreton Bay and on the neighbouring coast the aborigines 

 eagerly pursue the duyong, a species of small whale, generally known 

 to the colonists as the ' sea-pig.' This animal has a thick smooth 

 skin, with a few hairs scattered over its surface. Its colour is bluish 

 on the back, with a white breast and belly .f In size the full-grown 



* Vide ' Proceediugs of the Zoological Society ' for 1838, note to p. 43. 



f M. F. Cuvier figures the Malayan duyong of an uniform pale slaty or plumbeous 

 colour, with some darker blotches on the sides. In the atlas to the ' Voyage of the 

 Astrolabe' the duyong is figured of a pale fulvous hue with white under parts, which 

 laterally are blotched with the colour of the back. Hardwicke figures it of an uniform 

 slaty black, albescent on the head (unless this be meant for shine or reflected light). 

 There is a wood-cut showing the mode in which the female carries her yoiing in Sir 

 J. E. Tennent's work on Ceylon. 



