150 Sir Everard Home on the milk tusks, 
the incus to the other, so as to render these ossicula in a 
great measure immoveable. The stapes is unconnected with 
the foramen ovale, to which it is opposed ; nor is it anchy- 
losed with the ramus of the incus. The handle of the malleus 
projects in the centre of the circle over which the membrana 
tympani had been spread, so as to leave no doubt that, in the 
living animal, it is attached to the centre of that mem- 
brane. 
The nearest approach to this mechanism, is an attachment 
by bony union of the malleus to one side of the tympanum, 
which Mr. Hunter, in his paper on the Anatomy of Whales, 
states he had met with in some of that tribe ; but does not, 
(which is unfortunate) mention in what species. He says 
not in the porpoise ; and the author knows it is not the case in 
the balgena mysticetus ; so that this structure does not belong 
to those genera that live principally upon the surface, nor to 
those that penetrate the unfathomable depths ; and as Hunter 
describes the organ at length in the pike-whale, without 
mentioning this peculiarity as part of the description, it could 
not have occurred in that species. This renders it probable 
that he met with it in the grampus, or the bottle-nose, and it 
is very likely in both, as he insinuates that it is not confined 
to one genus. 
The dugong feeds on the plants that grow at the bottom 
of the sea, and comes in great numbers to the harbours of 
uninhabited islands, and remains for many hours in the shoal 
water, where it finds food : at least this account is given of its 
habits by Mr. Leguat, who, with several companions, spent 
nearly three years in an island previously uninhabited, about 
fifty leagues from the Mauritius, and the dugong was a 
