534 Bulletin American Museum of Natural History [Vol. LXVI 



mens of manatees either from the upper Niger River or from Lake Chad, 

 though their occurrence in the former is virtually certain, and their 

 former occurrence in the latter at least probable. 



The most recent reviser of the genus Trichechus, Hartlaub (1886), 

 assembled more African manatees than any other worker before or since, 

 but it seems that these were compared with the American coastal mana- 

 tees from Surinam only, and some of the characters by which Hartlaub 

 distinguished senegalensis from the group he called latirostris have proved 

 invalid in the case of skulls from Florida, Puerto Rico, and Guatemala. 

 Furthermore, his studies were limited to skulls and did not bring out 

 characters found elsewhere. 



This report establishes a few hitherto unrecognized characters for 

 the distinction of the crania of the different species of manatees, corrects 

 certain erroneous conclusions made by Hartlaub, and records for the 

 first time specific features of the postcranial skeleton. A review of the 

 nomenclatorial history of the manatees is given, and an earlier name than 

 that currently in use for the African manatees is established as valid; 

 the type locality for several nominal species is fixed, or restricted, and the 

 Florida manatee is recognized as a subspecies of the West Indian form. 

 Literature concerning the range of the African manatee is reviewed in 

 order to correct conflicting statements that occur occasionally even in 

 comparatively recent papers. 



NOMENCLATURE OF THE MANATEES 

 Trichechus Linnaeus 



1758. Trichechus Linnaeus, 'Systema Naturae/ 10th Ed., I, p. 34. Type, by 

 monotypy : Trichechus manatus Linnaeus. Type locality, by subsequent 

 designation: "West Indies" (Thomas, 1911, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 

 p. 132). By Opinion 112, 'International Commission on Zoological 

 Nomenclature' (Smithsonian Misc. Coll., LXXIII, No. 6, p. 19), Trich- 

 echus Linn aeus, 1758, type T. manatus is placed on the official list of 

 generic names. 



1772. Manatus Brunnich, 'Zoologiae Fundamenta/ pp. 34, 38. According to 

 Palmer (1904, p. 398) the type species is Trichechus manatus Linnaeus, 

 1758. Suspension of the Rules in favor of Manatus Brtinnich was declined 

 by the ' International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature' (Opinion 

 112, loc. cit). 



1803. Oxystomus G. Fischer, 'Das National Museum Naturgesch. zu Paris/ II, 

 p. 353. Type: Oxystomus manatus ( = Trichechus manatus Linnaeus). 



1848. Halipaedisca Gistel, ' Naturgesch. Thierreichs f. hohere Schulen,' p. 83. New 

 name for Manatus Brunnich, 1772. Type: Manatus americanus. 



Date? Monatus D'Orbigny, Keepsake's 'Hist. Nat. Desc. Mamm.,' pp. 256-257, 

 PI. xli, fig. 2. Paris. Misprint for Manatus. Original not seen. Refer- 

 ence from Palmer's 'Index Generum Mammalium,' 1904, p. 398. 



