xii PHYLUM CHORD ATA 533 



attached directly to the skull : these are epidermal structures 

 which are formed of a dense aggregation of slender fibre-like 

 elements. The eyes are small, and the auditory pinna well 

 developed. The surface is devoid, or nearly devoid, of hairs ; 

 the skin is enormously thick, and in some species thrown into 

 deep folds. The tail is narrow and of moderate length. 



The Hyraxes are small, somewhat Rabbit-like animals, 

 with slender limbs and vestigial tail. There are four func- 

 tional digits in the manus and three in the pes, all provided 

 with short flat nails, except the innermost of the pes, which 

 has a curved claw. The body is covered with soft fur. 



The Elephants, the largest of existing terrestrial Mammals, 

 have the limbs much more typically developed than in the true 

 Ungulates, there being five comparatively short digits, en- 

 closed in a common integument, in each foot, all of them in 

 the fore-foot and three or four in the hind-foot terminating 

 in a broad flat nail. The limbs are very stout and pillar-like, 

 and the thigh and leg when at rest are in a straight line in- 

 stead of being, as in the Ungulata vera, placed nearly at right 

 angles to one another a circumstance which gives a char- 

 acteristic appearance to the hind-quarters. The nasal region 

 is produced into a proboscis or " trunk," a mobile cylindrical 

 appendage, longer than the rest of the head, at the extremity 

 of which the nostrils are situated. There is in the male a 

 pair of enormous tusks the incisors of the upper jaw. The 

 eyes are small, the pinna of the ear enormous. The tail is 

 small. The skin is very thick and provided with only a 

 scanty hairy covering. 



In the Carpivora the typical number of digits is sometimes 

 present, or, more usually, there are five in the fore-foot and 

 four in the hind-foot, or four in both. The extremities of the 

 digits are provided with compressed curved claws, which 

 may be very long and sharp, when they are capable, when 



