Zoological Society. 385 



indistinct in front and wants the full extension of the black 

 down the nape, and the collar at the bottom just above the 

 breast is only faintly marked. The legs also are as yet of a dirty 

 greenish yellow tinge. It is not pinioned, but has hitherto shown 

 no wish to use its wings. In fact they are the tamest of the tame, 

 scarcely will move out of one's way if in the walks, and are con- 

 stantly coming into the building, even more familiarly than the 

 common Ducks." 



A specimen was exhibited of the Manis TcmmincJcii, Smuts, 

 forming part of the collection made by Mr. Steedman in Southern 

 Africa. Mr. Bennett stated that his object in calling the attention 

 of the Society to it was to point out the external characteristics of 

 a species known to its original describer by its skeleton alone and 

 by a few detached scales. 



It may be thus characterized: 



Manis Temminckii, Smuts. Man. capite breviore ; corpore latiore, 

 squamis magnis, ll-seriatis ; caudci truncum longitudine subce- 

 quante, latitudine paullo minore, ad apicem subtruncatum vix an- 



gustiore. 



,9 



Hab. apud Latakoo! 



Long. tot. 25^- unc. ; caudce, 12 ; lat. dorsi, 8; caudee, prope 

 apicem, 5. 



The most remarkable features of this animal are the shortness of 

 the head ; the breadth of the body ; and the breadth of the tail, 

 which is nearly equal to that of the body, and continues throughout 

 the greater part of its extent of nearly the same width, tapering 

 only slightly towards the end where it is rounded, and almost trun- 

 cate. In the shortness of the head and the general form of its upper 

 part, the Man. Temminckii bears nearly the same relation to the 

 Man. Javanica, as is borne by the Weasel- headed Armadillo, Da- 

 sypus 9-cinctus, Linn., to the six -banded, Das. 6-cinctus, Ej. Of the 

 eleven series of scales on the body, one on each side is ventral rather 

 than dorsal. The scales are very large, longitudinally striate, smooth 

 as though rubbed towards their hinder margin, and slightly pro- 

 duced into a thin, short, and rounded process: they are comparatively 

 few in number, the large scales of the middle line of the back from 

 the occiput to the tip of the tail being twenty only in number ; in 

 Man. pentadactyla, Linn., they are about thirty j and in Man. Ja- 

 vanica, Desm., they vary from about forty-five to fifty. A pecu- 

 liarity in the distribution of the scales of Man. Temminckii is the 

 cessation of the middle series of them at a short distance anterior 

 to the extremity of the tail, so that the last four transverse rows 

 consist of four scales each, each of the preceding ones having five. 



Some notes by Mr. Rymer Jones of the dissection of an Agouti, 

 Dasyprocta Aguti, 111., were read, and are given in the Proceedings. 



The animal was a male; adult; measuring 19Ath inches from 

 the extremity of the jaws to the root of the tail ; and weighing 4lbs. 

 4-ioz. Its head measured 4^V inches in length ; the tail, 1 T V 



Third Series. Vol.5. No. 29. ^.1834. 3D 



