MAMMALIA. 307 
crowns, adapted for grinding food. The nostrils are 
upon the upper part of the snout; the fore-limbs are 
fin-like, and they have five fingers; the hind-limbs are 
absent, their place seemingly taken by a horizontal, whale- 
like tail. 
Manatee (A/anatdz)—The Florida manatee (Fig. 
332), that is now extremely rare, ranges from the Amazon 
WW.) 
Fic. 332.—The manatee, or sea-cow, grazing. 
to southern Florida, and attains a length of nine feet. 
The tail is horizontal, and semi-oval in shape. Another 
species is found in Africa. They occasionally come upon 
the shore. The young, in nursing, are sometimes sup- 
ported by the flippers of the mother. 
Nore.—Steller’s manatee (RAytina Stelleri) was an Arctic form of 
gigantic proportions, attaining a length of thirty-five feet, and a weight 
of nearly four tons. The skin was leathery, the fore-limbs without 
fingers, but overgrown with coarse hairs ; the tail resembled that of 
the whale. They had no teeth, but two horny masticating plates, one 
in the gum and the other in the lower jaw. Herds of these animals 
were discovered by Steller at Behring Island in 1741, and twenty-eight 
years later they were extinct, having been destroyed by man. (Fora 
list of animals that have become extinct within a few hundred years, 
see article by the author in “ Lippincott’s Magazine,” June, 1883.) 
