Miscellaneous. 137 
The researches made in France have shown the truth of this 
opinion ; but Professor Brandt makes the following observations on 
the figures of the Mammoth described by MM. Lartet and Vibraye. 
The figure on a plate of ivory described by the former evidently 
represents the anterior half of an elephant; and it is quite clear that, 
by means of the lines observed on the neck, shoulders, and flank, 
the artist has tried to indicate long hairs, which might be regarded 
as representing parts of a mane. The direction of the tusks reminds 
one vividly of the Mammoth; but it must be remarked, with regard 
to the mane, that neither the form nor the density of this has yet 
been sufficiently demonstrated by naturalists. Adams accepted the 
notion of a mane, without having seen it, from the testimony of his 
companions and the presence of long hairs; and Tilesius does not 
oppose this conclusion. But the merchant Boltunoff, who saw the 
Mammoth three years before the arrival of Adams, and in a much 
better state of preservation, says nothing about a mane. Nevertheless 
two pieces of the skin of the nape, still attached to the cranium of 
the Mammoth at St. Petersburg, show a considerable quantity of 
the basal portions of rigid hairs, which were evidently rather long, 
and may at least be taken for traces of the existence of a mane. 
Perhaps, however, the artist of Périgord had a better opportunity of 
recognizing the mane than the Russian naturalists. 
The representation of an elephant in reindeer’s horn, described by 
M. Vibraye, seems to resemble the Indian elephant, at least as re- 
gards the anterior part of the head. The ear is rather close to the 
eye; it is oblong and coniparatively very narrow. All these charac- 
ters, especially the small size of the ear, remind us of the Mammoth. 
—Ann. des Sc. Nat. sér. 5. tome v. pp. 280-282. 
Note on the Discovery of the Dermal Shield in Megatheroid Animals. 
By Prof. Rerinuarpt. 
To the Editors of the Annals and Magazine of Natural History. 
GENTLEMEN,—I send you for insertion in the ‘ Annals’ an ex- 
tract from a letter received from Professor Reinhardt, of Copenhagen, 
and remain Yours obediently, 
British Museum, A. GUNTHER. 
July 23, 1866. ; 
«May I also draw your attention to the fact that this ‘ discovery’ 
of a dermal shield in Megatheroid animals was made as much as 
twenty years ago, and that Lund, in his last work on the extinct 
Mammalian Fauna of Brazil, expressly states that he found a kind 
of dermal shield in two different genera, Scelidotherium and Celo- 
don, gives a very detailed description of them, and even draws the at 
that time justifiable and natural conclusion that probably all Mega- 
theroid animals were furnished with a more or less similar shield. 
The shield was not so perfectly developed in Scelidotherium and 
Celodon as Burmeister has found it to be in Mylodon; but that is 
of small importance (see ‘Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes 
Selskabs Afhandlinger,’ Kjébenhavn; 1846, 12 Deel, p. 77).” 
Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 3. Vol, xvii. 10 
