THE PANGOLINS. 



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gifts in their eyes. They are carefully sought for, by the natives, for their own use and supposed 

 advantage, for they believe the animal to have some influence on cattle, and that certain treatment 

 to which they are exposed produces this. Whenever a specimen is secured by the natives, it is sub- 

 mitted to fire in some cattle-pen, apparently as a burnt offering for the increase of the health and 

 fertility of all cattle which may henceforward enter the fold. " Here," writes Dr. Smith, " we have 

 another cause for the obliteration of a species. Intolerance of their aggression has wrought up the 

 shepherd or agriculturist to the destruction of some; but in this case, a species is probably dying out 

 under the influence of a superstition." 



FOUR-FINGERED PANGOLIN. 



They burrow even in rather hard ground, and feed at night time. It has been noticed that the 

 mother sits upright when enticing the young to suckle. 



This Manis has rather a short head, and a wide body, and the tail is as long as the trunk : it 

 is rather less in width near the body, and does not diminish much near the end. In a specimen 

 which is twenty-five inches and a half long, the back of the animal is eight inches across, and the 

 tail at its root is five inches broad. The scales are large, and are in about eleven rows. The body is 

 of a pale yellowish-brown colour, the scales being lightest in tint near their points, and they are often 

 streaked with yellow. Where the scales are wanting the skin is dusky brown. The eyes are 

 reddish-brown, and the muzzle is black. The nails of the fore feet are bent under, so that the animal 

 walks on their upper part. The scales are composed of hairs placed side by side and agglutinated 

 together, and when first formed, and for some little time after, they are soft. They cover the upper 

 part of the fore and hind extremities besides the body, and are striated. This kind lives in Eastern 

 Africa, Sennaar, Caffraria, Kordofan, and Latakoo. 

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