560 Bulletin American Museum of Natural History [Vol. LXVI 



Province. The possibility that the word " manatee " is an error in trans- 

 lation before publication must not, however, be overlooked. 



Abyssinia 



Lake Tana: 1868. — Heuglin (pp. 247 and 289) states that in Lake Tana there 

 lived a manatee-like animal called by a name which means "sea calf." That the 

 author did not confuse the alleged mammal with the hippopotamus is clear from his 

 statement that the hippopotamus also lived in the lake. Very large catfishes are said 

 to inhabit this lake, and it may be that these are creatures that gave rise to Heuglin's 

 report. 



Mareb River: 1877. — Heuglin (loc. cit.) heard reports of an animal similar to, 

 or identical with the supposed manatee of Lake Tana, living under a different native 

 name in the Mareb and its tributaries, a part of the Nile drainage system. For this 

 animal he suggested (1877, II, p. 137) identity with Manatus Vogelii of the Benue 

 River. It is perhaps superfluous to observe that these purported Abyssinian manatees 

 can only be considered mythical. 



Oceanic Islands 

 St. Helena: A marine mammal called a "manati " was formerly not uncommon 

 at St. Helena up to the nineteenth century, the last specimen having been killed in 

 1810. Lydekker (1899, pp. 796-798) concluded that this was in all probability a 

 sirenian, but not identical with the African manatees. Unfortunately, since no speci- 

 men of this creature is known, nothing is to be gained by speculation as to its probable 

 relationships, but it seems most likely that the conclusion reached by Dampier, 

 during his visit to the island in 1691, is the correct one. Concerning this he wrote 

 (1906, 1, p. 526), "I was also informed that they get manatee or sea cows here, which 

 seemed very strange to me. Therefore enquiring more strictly into the matter, I 

 found the Santa Hellena Manatee to be by their shapes and manner of lying ashore on 

 the Rocks, those Creatures called Sea-lyons." 



SUMMARY 

 There are three known living species of manatees: one African 

 (Trichechus senegalensis Link) ; one chiefly inhabiting the coastal waters 

 of the West Indies and the eastern American coast from North Carolina 

 to Brazil (Trichechus manatus Linnaeus) ; and a third occurring chiefly 

 in the rivers of northeastern South America [Trichechus inunguis (Nat- 

 terer)]. It is probable that geographic extremes of these species are 

 racially distinct, and one such, T. manatus latirostris (Harlan), of 

 Florida is here recognized, but the manatee of the mouth of the Congo 

 cannot, on the basis of present knowledge, be distinguished from speci- 

 mens of senegalensis taken in Senegal, as figured and described in the 

 literature. T. senegalensis resembles T. manatus more than it does 

 inunguis, and it is supposed that these two species are more closely 

 related than the two New World species. 



