230 



EDENTATES. 



the white under-parts. The short- tailed pangolin (M. temmincJci) is readily 

 distinguished by its short and blunt tail, in which the under surface of the tip 

 lacks the bare patch found in all the other species except the next. The outer 

 surfaces of the limbs are also fully scaled. The giant pangolin (M. gigantea) is 

 sufficiently distinguished from the last by its superior size. It is remarkable that 

 the remains of a closely-allied species have been found in a cavern in Madras. The 

 whole of the four African species inhabit the West Coast ; but the short-tailed 

 species also extends to South Africa and ranges across the Continent to Zanzibar 

 and Southern Somaliland. 



The general habits of the African pangolins appear to be very 

 similar to those of their Asiatic cousins. While, however, the long- 

 tailed and the white-bellied pangolins are partially arboreal, the other two are purely 

 terrestrial. Most of the observations as to their habits have, however, been made 



WHITE-BELLIED PANGOLIN. (From Guide to British Museum. } 



from captive specimens. In 1878, Mr. F. Hoi wood, in sending a young example of 

 the short-tailed pangolin to the London Zoological Gardens, wrote as follows to the 

 secretary. These pangolins " always appeared to burrow in hard or stony ground, 

 and I saw them always in the daytime. The mother of the specimen I sent you 

 lived three months in Zanzibar. She only fed at night, and remained curled up in 

 a ball all day. She regularly retired to the dark corner of my harness-room at 

 daylight, and left for the garden at sunset. There were very few ants, but she 

 seemed to get plenty of insects. She burrowed at intervals all round the garden 

 walls, but this was evidently only trying to escape, as she never made a hole large 

 enough to give cover." Although the scales of this young pangolin were quite 

 soft at birth, they had completely hardened by the second day. Mr. L. Fraser 

 relates how his pangolins would climb the somewhat roughly-hewn square posts, 

 which supported a building, and sometimes roll up into a ball and throw themselves 

 down, apparently without suffering any inconvenience from the fall. 



