Sirenia. 



61 



the immediate ancestor of our existing small Welsh and Scottish Pier-case, 

 cattle. They are commonly found in peat-bogs, Turbaries, and No - 19. 

 superficial deposits of comparatively recent date, and in pre- Bos 

 historic tumuli, kitchen-middens, &c. longifrons. 



Here are also exhibited skulls of Bitbalus, an Indian buffalo, 

 from the Pleistocene deposits of the Narbada Valley. One 

 of these skulls is remarkably perfect and has the horn-cores 

 nearly entire and measuring more than six feet in expanse ; 

 the facial portion of the skull is also quite complete. This 

 specimen of Bubalus buffelus, var. palceindicus (Falconer), is 

 fio*ured au d described in Falconer's " Paloeontological Memoirs," 

 1868, Vol. I., p. 280, <fcc, PI. XXIL, Fig. 1. 



Bubalus 

 paleeinclicus. 



Order VII.— SIRENIA. (Dugong. Manatee, &c.) 



The Sirenia form a remarkable group of aquatic vegetable- Sirenia. 

 feeding mammals, and are really very distinct from the Cetacea, Pier-case^ 

 although they have been sometimes erroneously classed with No - S1 - 

 them. 



Fig. 72. — The penultimate and last lower molars, right side, of HrUUheriumfossile 

 (Blainville), Middle Miocene, Angers (Maine-et-Loire), France. 



The head is of moderate size — not enormously large com- 

 pared with the body, as in the Cetacea — and although in the 

 living animal the neck is not very apparent, the cervical 

 vertebrae are all distinct, and the head can be turned freely from 

 side to side, which is not the case in the Cetacea. 



The eyes are small ; there are no external ears visible ; the 

 fore limb is paddle-shaped, the digits being enveloped in a fin- 

 like cutaneous covering. The Sirenia have no dorsal fin ; the 

 tail is flattened, and expanded horizontally. 



The hind limbs are wanting, save in Halitherium, in which 

 genus, however, they are quite rudimentary; as is also the 

 pelvis. The bones, more especially the ribs, are extremely 

 compact in structure, like ivory, and of intense hardness, and 

 very massive. 



The teeth vary considerably in the several genera. In the 

 Manatee there are as many as 44 molars. In Halitherium there 

 are a pair of tusk-like upper incisors (smaller than in Ralicore), 



Sirenia, 

 Manatee, 

 & Rbytina. 



