MANATIDZ 219 
drawn inwards by a backward movement of the lower margin of 
the lip as a whole.” The animal is thus enabled by the unaided 
means of the upper lip to introduce food placed before it without 
the assistance of the comparatively insignificant lower lip, the action 
greatly recalling to the observer that of the mouth of the silkworm 
and other caterpillars, in which the mandibles diverge and converge 
laterally during mastication. When out of water the Manatee is 
an extremely helpless animal; and, although statements are fre- 
quently met with in books of its voluntarily leaving the water for 
the purpose of basking or feeding on shore, all trustworthy ob- 
-servations of those acquainted with it, either in a state of nature 
Fic. 73.—Front view of head of American Manatee, showing the eyes, nostrils, and mouth. 
A, With the lobes of the upper lip divaricated; B, with the lip contracted. From Muzie, 
Trans. Zool. Soc. vol. xi. 
or in captivity, indicate that it has not the power of doing so. 
None of the specimens in confinement have been observed to emit 
any sound. 
Manatees, though much less numerous than formerly, are still 
occasionally found in creeks, lagoons, and estuaries in some of the 
West India Islands, and at various spots on the Atlantic coast of 
America from Florida as far south as about 20° S. lat., and in the 
great rivers of Brazil, almost as high as their sources. They are 
also met with in similar situations on the opposite African coast, 
from about 16° N. to 10°S. lat., and as far into the interior as 
Lake Tchad. Their range may even extend, if native reports 
obtained by Schweinfurth are correctly interpreted, to the river 
Keebaly, 27° E. long. 
A considerable number of specific names have been applied to 
the existing Manatees, but according to the researches of Dr. 
Hartlaub! they may be reduced to three species, distinguished from 
one another, among other features, by the characters of the skull, 
and more especially the relations of the nasals to the adjacent 
1 Zool. Jahrbuch, vol. i. p. 1 (1886). 
