364 MANATID^. 



the females. They are often more than 20 feet long. They Uve 

 upon a green grass which grows npon the bank. 



Peron observes, the sailors were alarmed by a terrific howling, 

 which resembled the roaring of a bull, but much stronger, and seemed 

 to come from the neighbouring reeds. And Mr. Eraser, in Captain 

 Stirling's Surveying Voyage, 1826, notices that while attending to 

 the boat on the river, he " distinctly heard the bellowing of some 

 huge animal, similar to that of an ox, from an extensive marsh 

 further up the river." The roars were doubtless from the Dugong. 



Dampier observed these animals in Australia, but he mistook 

 them iov Hippopotami ; but he only saw a head, half decomposed by 

 digestion, and the tusk doubtless helped to mislead him. 



Peron mentions the existence of a Bugon on the Australian coast 

 in his ' Voyage of Discovery to Australia,' published in 1807, but he 

 only saw a few teeth collected by the sailors from a half-decomposed 

 specimen. 



The late Dr. Eobert Tyler presented a skuU and some other bones 

 to the Museum of the Asiatic Society of Calcutta. In 1827 he read 

 a paper on the Dugong or Dayoumy, on the bones of four difierent 

 individuals which he had picked up at Baffles Bay on the north coast 

 of Australia. (See Mem. of Dr. E. Tyler, Corbyn's Indian Rev. 1838, 

 iii. p. 46, and Blyth, Eeport Asiatic Soc. 14.) 



Known to the colonists in Morton Bay as the " Sea-pig." The 

 skin is thick and smooth, with a few hairs scattered on the surface. 

 Bluish on the back, with a white breast and beUy. The adidt male 

 does not exceed 18 or 20 feet long. It chiefly feeds on marine 

 vegetables which it finds at the bottom of the inlets in comparatively 

 shallow water, where it is easily captured. The fiesh resembles 

 good beef, and is much esteemed. The oil obtained from its fat is 

 peculiarly clear and limpid, and free from any disagreeable smeU 

 found in most animal oils. The blacks devour the carcase roasted, 

 after expressing the oU for sale to the colonists. — Abridged from 

 Sidney's Three Colonies of Australia, 1852, 337. 



The author of ' Eamble at the Antipodes,' 1859, described the 

 flesh of the Dugong, or Taiigan of the aborigines, as excellent, 

 having the taste of tender beef, and, when salted, nearly resembling 

 bacon. 



The Australian Dugong is met with on the north coast of that 

 island continent within the Great Burrow Eeef at Swan Eiver on the 

 western side, at Moreton Bay on the eastern, and in Port Essington 

 and Shasta Bay on the north coast. But it may be doubtful if they 

 are aU the same species. Professor Owen's H. avstralis is described 

 from the animal found in Port Essington (see Cat. Osteol. Series 

 Mus. CoU. Surgeons). 



2. Halicore Tabernaculi. 



" Tachas vel Thachusa, Moses, in Exodus, xxv. 5," Riippell. 

 Halicore tabernaculi, JRuppell, Mus. Senckenh. i. 113. t. 6. 

 H. Dugong, var., Eeichb. Syn. Mamm. 16. 



