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Show 458 MISS A. CRANE ON THE MANATEE. [Apr. 5, ground, as represented in the accompanying sketch (p. 457) from pencil of m y friend Mr. Thomas Davidson, F.R.S. They are moved backwards and forwards either singly or both at the same time. The extreme flexibility of these limbs, which resemble a human hand cased in a fingerless glove, is very remarkable. They are turned simultaneously or separately in their sockets in every direction, applied to their bodies and frequently to their mouths. The food is often gathered between their palmar surfaces and held up to their highly mobile lips. The animals are intelligent, recognize the voice and person of their keeper, W . Wells, and (while resenting the intrusion of a stranger in their tank) allow him to approach and brush them down daily to cleanse the upper surface of their bodies, and apparently enjoy the operation. Their movements in the water are very sluggish, as a rule ; but signs of excitement and unusual efforts in the male were noticed under the following circumstances. As he devoured his food far more rapidly than the female, and thus obtained an undue share, it was thought advisable to separate them at feeding-time. For this purpose a wooden partition fitting into a groove in the floor and fastened by upright supports was occasionally let down into the tank, projecting a few inches above the surface of the water. The female took no notice of this alteration, but invariably waited before commencing to feed until her mate was supplied on his side with a portion. The necessity for the separation soon became apparent; for the male cleared up every scrap of food long before the female, a more dainty and delicate feeder, had finished. H e then became very restive, swimming actively around his straitened quarters, pressed his nose against the parti-lion, rolled over on his back and exerted considerable force in his obstinate and repeated attempts to remove the obnoxious obstacle. Failing in his endeavours to push it on one side, he next tried to get over it, lifted his head above the water, feeling the edge of the partition with his fore paddles and raising them until they were almost level with the projecting edge. These efforts were repeated at intervals. The eyes were bright; and the whole bearing of the animal changed from a sluggish quiescence to intelligent activity. On one occasion, his keeper informed me, he actually succeeded in getting his fins over the edge, but was unable to make further progress. The Manatees seem to repose naturally at the bottom, differing in this respect from the Porpoise, which/on ceasing to propel itself by active locomotion, inevitably floats to the surface of the water, the posture assumed during sleep. The positions adopted by the pair of Manatees under notice differ materially from those which were assumed by the female previously exhibited in Brighton, and by the much larger specimen, also a female, from the island of Trinidad, formerly on view at the Westminster Aquarium1; for both of these animals habitually poised themselves at an angle in a vertically inclined posture, with the body supported by the incurved tail-fin, the dorsal or upper surface of which 1 See Dr Murie, " Further Observations on the Manatee," Trans. Zool. Soc. vol. xi. p. 19. |