Page:A narrative of travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro.djvu/358

 3i8 ZOOLOGY OF

The waters 01 the Amazon, up even to the base of the Andes, are inhabited by several species of true Cetacea, of which, however, we have as yet but very scanty information.

Two, if not more, species of Dolphins are common in every part of the Amazon, and in almost all of its tributaries. They are found above the falls of the Rio Negro, and in the Cassi- quiare and Upper Orinooko. They vary in size and colour, and two of them have distinct Indian names. — Piraiowara (Fish-dog), and Tucuxi.

D'Orbigny mentions their being killed by the inhabitants of Bolivia to make. oil. In the Lower Amazon and Rio Negro they are scarcely ever caught, and I was unable to obtain a specimen. The species described by D'Orbigny is probably distinct, as he mentions their being twenty feet long, whereas none I have seen could have exceeded six or seven.

Herbivorous Cetacea are also found in the Amazon ; they are called by the Brazilians, Peixe boi, or cow-fish, and by the Indians, Juaroua.

It has not yet been ascertained, whether the cow-fish of the Amazon is the same as the Manatus of the West Indies and the coasts of Guiana, or a distinct species. All the accounts of the Manatus Americanus mention it as being twelve or fifteen feet long on the average, and sometimes reaching twenty. Those of the Amazon appear to average seven or eight feet only ; of five or six specimens I have myself seen, none have exceeded this ; Lieutenant Smyth saw one on the Upper Uaycali, of the same size ; and Condamine describes the one he saw as not being larger.

The inhabitants of the Amazon give accounts of three kinds, which they seem to consider distinct, one smaller, and one larger than the common kind, and differing also in the shape of the tail and fins, and in the colour.

The West Indian species is always described as having external nails on the edge of the fin, or fore-arm. This I never observed in the Amazon species ; though in cutting the edge of the fin to take out the bones entire, I must have noticed them, had they been as prominent as they are usually described ; neither does Lieutenant Smyth mention them, though he could hardly have overlooked so singular an external character.

I am therefore inclined to think that the Amazon possesses