THE SOUTH AMERICAN MANATEE IN THE
WESTMINSTER AQUARIUM.
By the Editor.
For the second time a living specimen of that singular animal, the Manatee, or Sea-cow, Manatus americanus, has been brought to England, and may be seen disporting itself in a large glass tank at the Westminster Aquarium. The first example of the kind which reached this country alive was exhibited in August, 1875, in the Zoological Society's Gardens, in an open pond near the Seal Enclosure. It only lived a month, however, owing probably to the water being kept at too low a temperature for an animal accustomed to a tropical climate. Previous to this date more than one attempt had been made to bring over a living Manatee ; but although these efforts were unsuccessful, the arrival of some dead specimens, preserved in salt, proved of considerable value to zoolo- gists, for Dr. Murie, who was then Prosector to the Zoological Society, was enabled to dissect and examine them, and he pub- lished a detailed account of the anatomical structure, concerning which at that time comparatively little was known.*
The Manatees, or "Sea-cows," as they are popularly termed, inhabit estuaries and shallow parts of the shore in the intertropical regions on the Atlantic coasts of South America and Africa. In structure they resemble the Dugongs, being placed with them in the order Sirenia,} and are said to be related to the Cetacea, or whales, on the one hand, and to the Ungulata, or hoofed quadrupeds, on the other. They agree with the whales and differ from the seals in the absence of mid-limbs, and in the possession of a horizontal tail-fin ; but their nostrils are never used as blow- holes, although they can be opened and closed at will. They are as truly mammals as are the whales, seals and walruses, having warm blood, breathing by means of lungs, and bringing forth their young alive and suckling them. They have a hairy covering, too,
See Transactions of the Zoological Society for 1872.
+ The name Sirenia, applied collectively to the Manatees and Dugongs, is derived from the fact that these animals have a habit of sitting in a semi-erect position in the water, suggesting by their appearance the travellers' tales of Sirens and Mer- maids, the illusion being heightened by their ability to flex their flippers over the chest, and fold their young in this way, so it is said, to the breast.
