184 STUDIES IN THE EVOLUTION OF ANIMALS 



shield, and a body and haunch shield, the shoulders and limbs, and 

 circles round the eyes, having early lost their armour ; while the 

 Cape Ratel, and the common Badger may have descended from 

 ancestors which had a more complete armour. 



If the reader will turn to Fig. 79, of Rhinoceros Sondaicus, he may 

 perhaps be struck with the possible homology of its scapular shield 

 with the staring scapular black mark of this parti-coloured Bear ! 

 Even the fold in the groin of the Rhinoceros would seem to be 

 imitated by the black pigment in the Bear's groin and its white 

 head and neck are suggestive enough of the neck and head armour 

 of the Rhinoceros. 



One would be tempted to infer from all this that the remote 

 ancestor of this Bear lost its scapular armour long before it lost 

 its other carapacial armour ; and we know that the extinct Pola- 

 canthus had only a partial carapace on its lumbar and pelvic 

 regions. 



In this and similar speculations allowance should naturally be 

 made for the transition of solid plate-armour to its copy in hair, and 

 for any modification the Bear-descendant may have undergone in 

 its coloration through the ages. 



For instance, Ursus Americanus is wholly black, excepting its 

 muzzle, which is of a tawny yellow. The Tayra of the Weasel 

 family is usually of a dark brown colour, but occasionally white 

 specimens are met with, their muzzle, ears, and feet, however, remain- 

 ing dark. Of course I do not in any way mean that this bear 

 descended from Rhinoceros Sondaicus, any more than I mean that 

 the Giraffe descended from a Zebu ; all I mean is, that, in tracing 

 their origin backwards, the skin characters of certain mammals indi- 

 cate that they converge towards an armour-plated ancestry. 



Professor Huxley says : * In former periods of the world's history 

 there were animals which overstepped the bounds of existing 



