GENERAL CHARACTERS. 
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Mode of Life Although the manatis and dugongs never leave the water, and 
are as well adapted for an aquatic life as the Cetaceans, yet they 
cannot swim in the rapid manner characteristic of many of the latter, and are 
never found inhabiting the open sea. On the contrary, they frequent shallow seas 
and bays, lagoons, estuaries, and large rivers. As regards their food, these animals 
are entirely herbivorous; browsing upon sea-weeds or other aquatic plants growing 
beneath the surface of the water. They are slow and sluggish in their movements, 
while in disposition they are harmless and inoffensive, and appear to be endowed 
with but a comparatively small amount of intelligence. 
Both dugongs and manatis produce but a single offspring at a birth, which is 
attended with assiduous care by its parent. When suckling, the females raise their 
heads and breasts above the water, and exhibit the young clinging to them, and 
partially supported by their flippers; and there can be little doubt but that this 
habit has given origin to the legendary mermaid. In describing the dugong, Sir 
Emerson Tennent wrote as follows concerning this point:—“ The rude approach 
to the human outline observed in the shape of the head of this creature, and the 
attitude of the mother when suckling her young, clasping it to her breast with one 
flipper, while swimming with the other, holding the heads of both above water; 
and when disturbed, suddenly diving and displaying her fish-like tail,—these, 
together with her habitual demonstrations of strong maternal affection, probably 
gave rise to the fable of the mermaid; and thus that earliest invention of mythical 
physiology may be traced to the Arab seamen and the Greeks, who had watched 
the movements of the dugong in the waters of Manaar. Megasthenes records the 
existence of a creature in the ocean near Taprobane [Ceylon], with the aspect of a 
woman; and .ZElian, adopting and enlarging upon his information, peoples the seas 
of Ceylon with fishes having the heads of lions, panthers, and rams, and, stranger 
still, Cetaceans in the form of satyrs. Statements such as these must have had 
their origin in the hairs which are set round the mouth of the dugong, somewhat 
resembling a beard, which yElian and Megasthenes both particularise from their 
resemblance to the hairs of a woman.” The belief in the existence of mermaids 
was firmly credited by the early Portugese and Dutch voyagers to the East. 
The living members of the order, which generally associate in 
small herds, frequent the coasts and larger rivers on both sides of the 
Atlantic, and also those of the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean, parts of the Bay of 
Bengal, and Australia. The northern sea-cow was, however, an inhabitant of the 
cold regions of Behring Sea; and during the Tertiary period Sirenians were distri¬ 
buted over the greater part of the globe. The group is, therefore, evidently a 
waning one. From their herbivorous habits and the structure of their molar teeth 
the suggestion naturally arises that the Sirenians are connected with the Ungulates; 
and the resemblances of their teeth are nearer to the Even-toed than to the Odd-toed 
section of that order. The retention of five toes by the Sirenians seems, however, to 
indicate that if they are really connected with the Ungulates, they must have 
diverged from that group at a very early period of its existence. 
It has been very generally considered that each of the three 
genera of Sirenians that have existed during the historic period is 
entitled to constitute a family by itself. The whole are, however, so nearly allied, 
Distribution. 
