TRICHYS FASCICULATA. 209 



scales and bairs, resp. quills, and that the latter are not 

 disorderly implanted between the scales and upon the skin, 

 has been pointed out by Prof. Max Weber, Dr. de Meijere 

 and myself, and therefore it is evident that we pay con- 

 tinually attention to that highly important matter. 



Here in T. fasciculata I settle the following interesting 

 fact. The quills are placed upon the body in very regu- 

 larly arranged groups , like in other Porcupines ; in sepa- 

 rate groups on parallel rows like the hairs on the scaly 

 tails of most Rodents and other Mammals; the longest 

 quill always in the middle, the other ones right and left 

 diminishing regularly in length ; the whole arrangement 

 makes the impression as if they are placed along the margin 

 of scales, like it is the case with the hairs of the rat's 

 tail. And looking at the inside of the skin we see to our 

 great astonishment and surprise, that they do indeed , for the 

 whole inside shows models ^) of scales regularly arranged in 

 parallel rows exactly like the squills upon the reverse of the skin ! 



It is a remarkable fact that the more the skins of Mam- 

 mals are examined , the more it appears that there are 

 everywhere vestiges of scales where formerly nobody thought 

 of. This inquiry not being closed for several years, it 

 however is very seductive to a speculative mind to con- 

 clude that it is very likely that the ancestors of our Mam- 

 mals in prehistoric times were clad with scales and not 

 with hairs or quills. And that this hypothesis would not 

 be too hasardous follows from the fact that it is supported 

 bv what we know about the teguments of numbers of 

 fossils, found in very old strata. It is however a great 

 puzzle to me to understand why or how those gigantic 

 well armed and strongly clad animals have vanished and 

 yielded their place in favour of the rather small, less 

 armed and badly clad specimens of the creation of now a day ! 



1) Cf. what I remarked concerning the tabulated skin of hands and feet of 

 Mks Armandvillei; Weber's Zool. Ergebn. Bd. Ill, Heft I, 1893, p. 81 (bottom). 



Notes from the Leyden Museum , "Vol. XVI. 



