Dugong

Dugong, any species of the Sirenian genus Halicore. The head is rounded and joined to the fish-like body by a short neck, and the snout is bent downwards; the digits of the anterior and only pair of limbs are nailless, and the tail is broad and deeply notched. The upper jaw bears two tusk-like incisors, which persist in the male and point downwards and forwards, but remain in the alveolar cavities in the female; canine teeth are absent, and there are five or six molars in each jaw. According to Prof. Flower, the size of these animals is greatly exaggerated, a length of eight feet being rarely exceeded. These primitive marine mammals frequent the bottoms of shallow bays and creeks feeding on marine vegetation. The female is an excellent mother, and produces a single calf at a birth. The way in which the young are suckled, by holding them to the teats, almost in human fashion, possibly gave rise to the mermaid myth which is commemorated in the generic name (= sea-maiden). There are three species, H. tabernaculi, which owes its specific name to Ruppell's fancy that it furnished the "badger" skins for the covering of the tabernacle (Exod. xxv. 5); H. dugong, from the Indian and Pacific Oceans, and H. australis from the Australian coasts. This last species yields an oil said to possess the medicinal qualities of cod-liver oil without its disagreeable taste and smell. [Manatee, Rhytina, Sirenia.]