80 Mr. W. K. Park. i. [June 19, 



is that which makes these forms so abnormal to the morphologist, aa 

 well as to the zoologist. 



As it happens, the most primitive form of Mammalia existing, tho 

 Prototheria (Ornithorhynckus and Echidna) are also abnormal on the 

 some account, and thus the best standard, existing, by which to measure 

 the height of the platform on which we find the Edendata, is not itself 

 normal, or straight, or perfect. 



Now none of the Metatheria or Marsupials have suffered from this 

 kind of degenerative specialisation ; they, therefore, come in well as 

 standards of measurement and comparison for the Insectivora, next 

 above them, but are of little use here among the Edentata. 



Professor Flower, after working out the general anatomy of this 

 group (" Proc. Zool. Soc.," 1882, pp. 358367), has come to the 

 conclusion that the Edentata of the Old World have little to do with 

 those of the New. 



That sounds like a hard saying to one not familiar with the struc- 

 ture of the group ; it did so to me, no long time since, although what 

 I had done at the group, long ago, went to prove the same thing ; 

 now, however, I am quite satisfied of the truth of my friend's deduc- 

 tions. 



The Neotropical Edentata hold together much more than might 

 have been expected. The Armadillos are the most isolated ; but much 

 as the Aard-Vark of the Cape looks like an archaic Armadillo without 

 armour, he is not more than a very distant relative' of the modern 

 armed Armadillos. 



Indeed, the curious coincidence that I have found between the 

 structure of the Aard-Vark and that of a large Insectivore from a 

 contiguous region, namely, the Ehyncucijon from Zanzibar, leads me 

 to suspect that the Cape Anteater is an offshoot from the same stock, 

 and is, indeed, the only Edentate that can be looked upon as 

 probably arising originally from a Metatherian or Marsupial stock, 

 like tho Insectivora. 



The other Palseotropical Edentata the Pangolins are perhaps 

 still more isolated than the Aard-Vark, but they have not come so 

 near extinction, and are found in more than one continent of the Old 

 World. 



If the term Reptilian might be applied to characters seen in any 

 Placental Mammal, it might to what I find in this. This creature 

 has most remarkable correspondences with the Reptilian group. Of 

 course, the scaly covering is merely mimetic of the Lizard's scales, and 

 is in reality made up of cemented hairs ; that may pass; but nut the 

 structure of the sternum in some species, with its long "xiphistoinal 

 horns," as in the Stellionidce, and the cartilaginous abdomiual ribs, 

 as in the Chameleons and some other kinds. (See my memoir on the 

 41 Shoulder-girdle and Sternum," Roy. Soc., 1868, Plate 22, fig. 13.) 



