218 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



August 



CURTAIN! 



Villain shows his indiscretion; 

 Villain's partner makes confession; 

 Juvenile wlith golden tresses 

 Finds her pa and dons long dresses; 

 Scapegrace comes home money laden; 

 Hero comforts tearful maiden ; 

 Soubrette marries loyal chappie ; 

 Villain skips, and all are happy. 



—Paul Laurence Dunbar in Century- 



THE SKIN OF ANIMALS. 



In Some It Is a Defensive Armor Made of 

 Horn and Bone. 



Osteoloj^ist Lucas of the National 

 museum is prepariug a new exhibit, 

 which is designed to show the various 

 modificatious of the skin of animals. 



To begin with, there will be a queer 

 sort of alligator from South America, 

 called the " jacari. " It is quite different 

 from any alligator from North America, 

 belonging to a peculiar genus that has 

 bony plates on the under side as well as 

 on the upper side of the body. This is a 

 distinguishing mark of the tribe, such 

 alligators as are known elsewhere in the 

 world being thus armored only on their 

 backs. The armor plates of the alliga- 

 tors are of true bone — the same sort of 

 bone as that of the animal's skeleton. 



If you will examine the skin on the 

 back of your hand, you will find that it 

 is corrugated and broken up with fine 

 lines iu such a way that you can easily 

 imagine its texture transformed by ex- 

 aggeration into scales. Now, you have 

 only to gaze upon an armadillo in order 

 to see such a modification of the skin. 

 In Africa is found a yet more curious 

 animal, called the "Manis macrura, " 

 ■which is the most scaly of all scaly 

 beasts. From the tip of its nose to the 

 end of a very long tail it is clad in big 

 horny scales that overlap one anothei-. 

 "When alarmed, it curls itself up into ti 

 tight ball, and the scales being quiU^ 

 sharp it is pretty safe against attack. 

 In this case also the scales are only 

 modified skin. It is worth mentioning, 

 by the way, that the Manis macrura 

 possesses a greater number of vertebrtB 

 than any other mammal. 



Mr. Lucas will show, in the game 

 case with the jacari and the armadillo, 

 a "scheltopusic. " This is a lizard from 

 Sicily. The casual observer would take 

 it for a snake, its legs being rudimen- 

 tary and concealed beneath its skin. The 



entire Docty ot the reptile is covei:ed 

 with little plates of bone. As in the case 

 of the alligator, above described, the 

 bony plates of the lizard are merely 

 modified skin. The same is true of the 

 very remarkable "boxfish" of the West 

 Indies, which is clad in a complete 

 armor of six sided plates of bone, which 

 are fastened to the skull and to the 

 bases of the dorsal and anal fins. An 

 odd point about this fish is that it can- 

 not bend its body at ail, the vertebrae, 

 save only three or four near the tail, be- 

 ing fused together. Thus the backbone 

 is a solid rod. 



The scales of the armadillo are of 

 bone, covered with horn, the bone and 

 the horn corresponding respectively to 

 the true skin and the epidermis of a 

 human being or other animal. Bony 

 plates and .spines are modifications of the 

 true skin, while horn is modified epider- 

 mis. Human beings sometimes develop 

 horns, but they are abnormal growths. 

 Another queer fish that vnW be shown 

 iu connection with this exhibit is the 

 "globt'fish, " which is found in waters 

 off the coast of South Carolina. It is 

 clad in an armor of interlocked spines, 

 which are made to stand erect at the 

 will of the animal, thus rendering the 

 latter an unattractive morsel to swal- 

 low. In a world like this, where every 

 living creature is the prey and food of 

 others, animals are often obliged to put 

 on coats of mail if they would survive. 



Mr. Lucas will make fur and feath- 

 ers a part of the exhibit. Feathers and 

 hair are the same thing, differently 

 modified, of course. A stuffed and fret- 

 ful porcupine will illustrats the fact 

 that mammals as well as birds have 

 quills. This is true of several species of 

 mammals, notably the European hedge- 

 hog, which is a disagreeable creature to 

 handle without gloves. Awhile ago 

 there were a couple of porcupines in the 

 zoological collection in the rear of the 

 Smithsonian institution. One of them 

 assailed an attendant and stuck about 

 30 of its quills into his legs. He (the at- 

 tendant, not the porcupine) told a writer 

 for The Star that the quills came out of 

 the porcupine much more easily than 

 they came out ot his leg. — Washington 

 Star. 



One Chicago Millionaire. 



To see him at the race track, for in- 



