147 



mus Alexandrinus. He descrlbes a small dark-coloured prickle in 

 the verv tip of the Lion's tail, as hard as a piece of horn, surrounded 

 at its base by an annular fold of the skin, and adhering firmly to a 

 singular foUicle of a glandular appearaoce. Ali these parts vvere 

 hovvever, he remarks, so minute, and the little horny apex so buried 

 in the tuft of hair, that the use attributed to it by the ancient scholi- 

 ast cannot be regarded as any thing else than imaginary, Blumen- 

 bach's description was accompanied by a figure, which vvas copied in 

 the ' Edinburgh Philosophical Journal,' in the 8th volume of which a 

 translation of his paper was given. 



The subject appears to have again slumbered uiitil 1829, when M. 

 Deshayes announced, in the 'Annales des Sciences Naturelles' (vol. 

 vii. p. 79), that he had found the prickle on both a Lion and Lioness 

 which died in the national Menagerie of France. It vvas described by 

 him as a little nail or horny production, about two lines in length, 

 presenting the form of a small eone, a little recurved upon itself, and 

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

 tebra, from vvhich it vvas separated by a space of 2 or 3 lines. 



From the period vvhen M. Deshayes' discovery vvas announced Mr. 

 Woods has suffered no opportunity to escape him of e.\amining the 

 tails of every Lion, living or dead, to vvhich he could gain access j but 

 in 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, vvithin half an hour after its 

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

 it had been attached to the skin. 



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

 throughout the greater part of its length tovvards the apex, vvhere it 

 is sharp ; at the other e.\tremity it is hollovv 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 aftervvards svveliing out likę the bulb of a 

 bristle to its termination. It is laterally flatlened throughout its 

 entire length, vvhich 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 vvould lead to the belief that it vvas deeply 

 inserted into the skin, vvith vvhich, hovvever, from the readiness 

 with vvhich it becarae detached, its connexion mušt 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 

 šame cause vvill 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 vvas found vvere of considerable size, vvhile that belonging to the 

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

 vvanting in the female cub of the šame litter at the Society's Gardens, 

 it existed in the Lioness at the Jardin du Uoi. 



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

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

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



