94 MAMMALIA. 



the whalers and Eskimo. The latter species visits the coast of 

 Greenland only in the summer months, from March to November, 

 and its range may be given as the same. In common with the 

 other, it is rarely killed by the natives. The small Balcenoptera 

 rostrata only comes in the summer months to Davis Strait and 

 Baffin's Bay, or very seldom during the winter to the southern 

 portion of Greenland. It is not killed by the natives, and its 

 ranrre is that of its conveners. The natives of the western shores 

 of Davis Strait seldom recognised the figures of this and kindred 

 species of Whales, though the Greenlanders instantly did so."* 



Family or Herbivorous CETACEA.f — The diet of these animals 

 has necessitated their being provided with molar teeth, having 

 those parts which project from the gums iiat ; they also have the 

 faculty of dragging themselves along on the ground, so as to 

 enable them to feed on the sea-shore. Their anterior members 

 are more flexible than those of the true Cetacea, and they are 

 never found in the open ocean. 



We will mention among this little familj' the Manatee (Manatus) 

 and the Duyongs (Halicore). 



The Manatees {Manatus), Fig. 23, have the body oblong, 

 terminated by a simple fin. Their anterior fins are composed of 

 five fingers, each composed of three joints, and of which some at 

 least are furnished with flat and rounded nails, coarsely resembling 

 those of a Man ; they have no posterior members. Their head, 

 almost conical, is terminated in a fleshj^ muzzle, having, on its 

 upper portion, very small nostrils. Their eyes are also small, and 

 their upper lip is furnished with a moustache of stiif hairs. Their 

 teats, placed on the stomach, become large and rounded during 

 gestation and the suckling period. It is for this last, and also on 

 account of the skill with which the Manatees sometimes make 

 use of their flns for carrying their young, that these animals have 

 been often called Mermaids (femmes-poissons) , or women of the 

 sea, &c. 



These animals collect together in large troojDS. Their character 

 is mild, affectionate, and sociable. The male, which is extremely 

 attached to his female, does not desert her in the hour of danger, 



* Proecedings of the Zoological Society, 1868, .'i41. 

 t Syrinia of De Blainville. 



