118 IfATURAL HISTORY OF AQUATIC ANIMALS. 



Another specimen, a female, received by the same society from Surinam, measured eighty 

 inches, but no indication of its age is given.' Still another specimen, this time a male, arrived 

 in London. When dead, measurements showed its length to be ninety-four and five-tenths inches 

 •or seven feet ten and one-half inches.'* 



Of two male Surinam specimens which died in the Zoological Gardens at Philadelphia, one 

 measured exactly six feot from snout to tip of tail, the other six and a half feet.' 



General Thomas Jordan, writing in "Forest and Stream," in 1873, says: " Three of these huge 

 mammals.I saw on Indian River, in 1849-'50, each weighing at least fifteen hundred pounds, and 

 between fifteen and twenty feet in length." He adds: "The Florida species {T. latirostris) are 

 much larger than those found in the Antilles, South America, or Africa."* This last statement can 

 scarcely be strictly correct. Other writers, as we have seen, have found quite as large specimens 

 as those here referred to in South America. 



Breeding habits of Manatees. — In relation to the breeding of Manatees, and the size and 

 habits of the young, almost nothing is known. Ogilby, in his account of Cuba, says: "No less' 

 wonderful is the Fish Manate; it breeds for the most part in the Sea, yet sometimes swimming up 

 the Rivers, comes ashore and eats G»ass."^ ' 



This account, however, is of little value, as it was copied by Ogilby, who does not state 

 whence he derived it. Du Tertre states that two calves are born at a time. " If the mother is 

 taken," he writes, "one is assured of having the young: for they follow their mother and continue 

 to move about the canoe until they are made companions of her misfortuDe."^ 



Descourtlitz, writing regarding his own observations in 1809, says: "The Manatees possess a 

 gentle and amiable nature, and lament when they are separated from their young, which the 

 mother nourishes with much tenderness. They appear sensitive and intelligent; they weep when 

 they are taken without having received any bad treatment, seeming to regret that they can never 

 return to their haunts. Although sometimes they appear to avoid man, at other times they regard 

 him without suspicion and seem to implore his pity. The young do not quit the mother for many 

 years, and, sharing her dangers, often become the victims of their filial devotion."'' 



Brandt, who has examined much of the literature of the subject, states that it is said that the 

 period of gestation lasts eleven months, and that the young follow the mother a half year.' 



Food of Sieenians. — The Sirenians, as a group, are very strictly graminivorous, and the 

 American Manatees form no exception. The structure of their lips and teeth is such that this fact 

 might be surmised were nothing known of their habits. Living as they do at the mouths of rivers 

 and about the coast, or in the upper waters of streams, they find no lack of aquatic vegetation on 

 which to subsist. Exactly what plants they thrive best upon has been the subject of inquiry by 

 several observers, especially those who have been interested in the attempt to keep the Manatee in 

 captivity. Mr. Chapman informs us that the specimen at the Philadelphia gardens ate freely of 

 various garden vegetables — cabbage, celery tops, spinach, kale, baked apples, and others, while 

 they devoured as well quantities of the aquatic plant Vallineria spiralis, and the sea-weed Ulva 

 latissima.' The Central Park specimen seems to have been more dainty. "A variety of aquatic 



'Garrod: Transactions Zoological Society of London, x, 1877, p. 137. 



'Mukib: Transactions Zoological Society of London, xi, 1880, p. 27. 



^Chapman: Pioc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, xxvii, 1875, p. 452. 



■•Forest and Stream, i, 1873, p. 169. 



"Ogilby: America, 1671, p. .315. 



6Du Tbktre: Histoire Nat. des Antilles, 1667, pp. 201,202. 



'Descourtlitz: Voyage d'nu Naturaliste, ii, 1809, pp. 274,275. 



'Brandt: SymbolsB Sirenologicse, faso. iii, 1861-68, p. 256. 



^Chapman, H. C, in Proo. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, xxvii, 1875, pp. 459-461. 



