160 SEA-COWS 
This creature, the only American representative of its 
Order except the extinct Steller sea-cow, is a large and heavy 
water mammal, from 9 to 13 feet in length, and in form very 
much like a seal. It has a blunt muzzle, small eyes, and 
rather feeble, clumsy front flippers. Its tail is a rounded 
disk, which in swimming forms a powerful propeller. When 
dry its skin is of a clean, slaty-gray color, but in the water 
it seems almost black. The bones are solid and heavy, and 
the ribs are very thick. The largest specimen ever taken 
and preserved in the United States was 13 feet in length, 
and must have weighed about 1,200 pounds. In the summer 
of 1903, a fine specimen about eight feet long was captured 
under a state permit in the Banana River, Florida, and 
placed on exhibition in the New York Aquarium. From 
time to time others have been exhibited at various watering- 
places along the Atlantic coast. 
The Manatee never comes upon land. Usually its home 
is chosen in the upper waters of some deep, quiet tropical 
river, above the influence of the tide, where there is an abun- 
dance of Manatee grass and other water plants acceptable 
to it for food. It is herbivorous, and because its molar teeth 
are weak and it has no front teeth, it is compelled to live upon 
aquatic plants which are tender as well as nourishing. Its 
food is always eaten under water, and when at home its 
presence is generally revealed by the bits of plant stems and 
grass blades which escape and float to the surface. In cap- 
tivity, the Manatee feeds upon lettuce, cabbage, canna 
leaves, celery tops, water-cress, spinach, eel-grass and ocean 
ae 
sea-weed. 
