458 DE. H. WOODWAED ON AN ALMOST 



luxuriant grass. It would be next to impossible to find tbem by 

 diggiug, but they are found by boring into the peat with an iron 

 rod or some such tool. The same method is adopted in the peat- 

 deposits in Ireland, when one desires to find a timber-tree for gate- 

 posts or other purposes ; the resistance offered to and the sound 

 emitted by the boring-rod, when in contact with a solid, is at once 

 noticed by the operator. The specimen now in the British Museum 

 was obtained from compact peat, and all the vertebrae and other 

 bones having cavities in them were full of peat-growth when they 

 arrived, as was also the skull. I am informed that in Aliaska 

 territory bones of the BJiytina have been obtained in a similar 

 manner from deposits of peat. 



A detailed description of the RJiyt'ma is rendered almost superero- 

 gatory by the magnificent work of the late Dr. J. F. Brandt, of St, 

 Petersburg, who in his monograph, ' Symbolse Sirenologicse,' 1846-68, 

 has left us a masterly and detailed account of the anatomy of this 

 interesting genus, accompanied by admirably executed plates. Never- 

 theless the recent acquisition by Mr. Robert Damon, F.G.S., of a 

 specimen nearly as complete as that in the St. Petersburg Museum, 

 and more so than JSTordenskiold's, seems deserving of a brief notice*. 



One of ih.Q contemporary writers on Rhytina with Brandt, after 

 Steller, was Alexander v. Nordmann, Professor of Zoology in the 

 Imperial University of Helsingfors, in Finland (see Beitrage zur 

 Kenntniss des Knochen-Baues der Rhytina Stelleri, von Dr. Alexander 

 V. JN'ordmann, 4to, Helsingfors, 1861, Acta Soc. Scient. Pennicse, 

 torn. vii. with 5 plates). 



Ehytina : Gene7'al Characters. — The Rhytina belongs to the order 

 Sirenia, all the species of which are purely aquatic in their habits 

 and of fish-like form of body, which led to their being formerly 

 confounded with the Cetacea, from which, however, they are widely 

 separated. 



The head in the Sirenia is rounded, and of moderate size, never 

 disproportionately large, as in the Whales ; the neck is short and 

 scarcely offers any marked constriction between the head and body. 



The muzzle is truncated and obtuse, and the nostrils, which are 

 placed above the fore part of the snout, are valvular and distinct. 

 The external ear is absent, or very small ; the eyes very small with 

 an imperfect eyelid, but a well-developed nictitating membrane. 

 The form of the body is depressed, fusiform, tapering behind, and 

 without any dorsal fin ; the tail is flattened and expanded horizontally, 

 as in the Cetacea. 



The fore limbs appear to be remarkably free, and capable of 

 being moved from, the shoulder-joint. Thus the living Manatee 

 has been observed to use its fore limbs, " manus," to assist in bringing 

 the food towards the mouth in feeding ; and, as the mammary glands 

 are axillary, the females all hold the young, in early life, under their 

 arms t. 



* The specimen has now been acquired for the British Museum (Natural 

 History), Cromwell E,oad, London. 



t That the appearance of these grotesque animals, no doubt frequently seen 



