74 Zoological Society. 



adhering by its base only to the skin and not to the last caudal ver- 

 tebra, from which it was separated by a space of 2 or 3 lines. 



From the period when M. Deshayes' discovery was announced Mr. 

 Woods has suffered no opportunity to escape him of examining the 

 tails of every Lion, living or dead, to which he could gain access ; but 

 n no instance has he succeeded in ascertaining the existence of such 

 an organ ; nor had he ever observed it until the specimen now before 

 the Committee was placed in his hands, within half an hour after its 

 removal from the living animal, and while yet soft at its base where 

 it had been attached to the skin. 



It is formed of corneous matter like an ordinary nail, and is solid 

 throughout the greater part of its length towards the apex, where it 

 is sharp j at the other extremity it is hollow and a little expanded. 

 Its shape is rather singular, being nearly straight for one third of its 

 length, then slightly constricted, (forming a very obtuse angle at the 

 point of constriction,) and afterwards swelling out like the bulb of a 

 bristle to its termination. It is laterally flattened throughout its 

 entire length, which does not amount to quite 4ths of an inch. Its 

 colour is that of horn, but becoming darker, nearly to blackness at 

 the tip. Its appearance would lead to the belief that it was deeply 

 inserted into the skin, with which, however, from the readiness 

 with which it became detached, its connexion must have been very 

 slight. The slightness of its adhesion is noticed by M. Deshayes, 

 who attributes to this its usual absence in stuffed specimens. The 

 same cause will account for its absence in by far the greater number 

 of living individuals ; for, as Mr. Woods remarks, its presence or 

 absence does not depend upon age, as the Lions at Paris in which 

 it was found were of considerable size, while that belonging to the 

 Society is very small and young j nor upon sex, for although it is 

 wanting in the female cub of the same litter at the Society's Gardens, 

 it existed in the Lioness at the Jardin du lloi. 



Mr. Woods, considering it probable that a similar structure might 

 exist in other species of Felis, had previously examined the tails of 

 nearly the whole of the stuffed skins in the Society's Museum, but failed 

 in detecting it in every instance but one. This was in an adult Asiatic 

 Leopard, in which the nail was evident although extremely small. It 

 was short and straight, and perfectly conical, with a broad base. It is 

 stated in a note in the ' Edinburgh Philosophical Journal,' that a claw or 

 prickle had also been observed by the editor of that work on the tail of a 

 Leopard. No such structure washowever detected on a livingindividual 

 in the Society's Menagerie. In the Leopard, therefore, as in the Lion, 

 it appears to be only occasionally present. In both it is seated at the 

 extreme tip of the tail, and is altogether unconnected with the termi- 

 nal caudal vertebra. From the narrowness and shape of its base, the 

 circumference of which is by far too small to allow of its being fitted 

 like a cap upon the end of the tail, it appears rather to be inserted 

 into the skin, like the bulb of a bristle or vibrissa, than to adhere to 

 it by the margin as described by M. Deshayes. Neither the pub- 

 lished observations of that zoologist nor the present discovery, can 



