94 
MAMMALIA. 
the whalers and Eskimo. The latter species visits the coast of 
Greenland only in the summer months, from March to November, 
and its range may be given as the same. In common with the 
other, it is rarely killed by the natives. The small Balcenoptera 
rostrata only comes in the summer months to Davis Strait and 
Baffin’s Bay, or very seldom during the winter to the southern 
portion of Greenland. It is not killed by the natives, and its 
range is that of its congeners. The natives of the western shores j! 
of Davis Strait seldom recognised the figures of this and kindred | 
species of Whales, though the Greenlanders instantly did so.”* 
Family or Herbivorous Cetacea, f — The diet of these animals 
has necessitated their being provided with molar teeth, having \ 
those parts which project from the gums fiat ; they also have the 
faculty of dragging themselves along on the ground, so as to 
enable them to feed on the sea-shore. Their anterior members 
are more flexible than those of the true Cetacea, and they are 
never found in the open ocean. 
W e will mention among this little family the Manatee ( Manatus ) 
and the Duyongs ( Halicore ). 
The Manatees (Manatus), Fig. 23, have the body oblong, 
terminated by a simple fin. Their anterior fins are composed of 
five fingers, each composed of three joints, and of which some at 
least are furnished with flat and rounded nails, coarsely resembling 
those of a Man ; they have no posterior members. Their head, 
almost conical, is terminated in a fleshy muzzle, having, on its 
upper portion, very small nostrils. Their eyes are also small, and 
their upper lip is furnished with a moustache of stiff hairs. Their 
teats, placed on the stomach, become large and rounded during 
gestation and the suckling period. It is for this last, and also on 
account of the skill with which the Manatees sometimes make 
use of their fins for carrying their young, that these animals have 
been often called Mermaids (femmes-poissons ) , or women of the 
sea, &c. 
These animals collect together in large troops. Their character 
is mild, affectionate, and sociable. The male, which is extremely 
attached to his female, does not desert her in the hour of danger, 
* Proceedings of the Zoological Society, 1868, />41. 
f Syrtnia of De Blainville. 
