174 NA TVKA L HIS TOR T. 



THE LONG-TAILED, OK FOUR-FINGERED PANGOLIN.* 

 This Ant-eater is from two to three feet in length, and the tail is twice as long as the body. It 



inhabits the Guinea Coast and the Gaboon, and probably Senegal. It is a dark brown animal, with 



the hair of the face and under sides black in tint. There are eleven series of scales, with the end 



rounded, and a central prominence. 



Buffon described a pale brown or horn-coloured, very scaly, long-tailed Ant-eater as a Phatagin, 



but it is correctly called Manis tricuspis, from the scales having three projections on them. It lives 



in Western Africa, Fernando Po, Guinea, and Sierra Leone. 



THE GREAT MANIS.t 



This scaled Ant-eater is thirty inches long in the body, and its tail measures twenty-five inches 

 in length. The great tail lessens to the end, and the scales are striated at the base, the whole colour 

 being pale brown. It is an interesting animal from its likeness to one of the Asiatic species, the 

 Manis pentadactyla (Linn.) ; but the difference in the length of tail is remarkable. It has been 

 found in West Africa, Guinea, and in the Cape Coast Castle district. 



THE ASIATIC SCALY ANT-EATERS. 



There is one point of great interest about the genus Manis, and it is that it is not restricted to 

 Africa, for some species are found over a wide extent of country in India. They live there in a region 

 from the Himalayan Mountains to Ceylon, and eastward to Sumatra and Java, and in Southern China 

 as far as Amoy, Hainan, and Formosa. They afford an instance of closely-allied animals now living 

 in large districts which are separated by seas, deserts, mountains, and rivers, and other impassable 

 barriers. The Javanese are said to have called the animal, from the fact of its rolling itself up, 

 Pangolin, and the Bengalese termed it the Reptile of Stone. The first to be noticed is 



THE SHORT-TAILED, OR FIVE-FINGERED PANGOLIN.} 



This is supposed to be the Phattage of ^Elian, and much resembles Temminck's Manis from 

 South Africa. It has a small head, which is pointed and long at the muzzle ; the body is rather 

 stout, and the tail is short, broad at the root. The back scales are in longitudinal rows, eleven in 

 number, and they are smaller than those of the African kind. It has the under part of the body, 

 head, and feet naked, and more or less hairy, and some long, fair-coloured hairs spring from between 

 the scales. The middle claw of the fore-foot exceeds the others in size. They feed on white Ants 

 especially. They are found in Bengal, Madras, and Assam. 



A Manis with a tail as long as the body, and with the scales of the hind feet acutely pointed, 

 and the front and hind claws nearly equal in size, is found in Sumatra and in Java. Finally, the 

 other Asiatic kind, Manis Dalmannii, is found in the Himalayas, China, and possibly in Java. 



All the species of the genus Manis, whether from Africa or Asia, are absolutely toothless, and 

 the Edentate peculiarity is perfect, for there are no back teeth. The tongue is worm-like, round, very 

 long, and can be stuck out far from the mouth, and it supplies the want of the teeth, but from having 

 this long organ and no back teeth, the palate and the skull are very long and conical. Being with- 

 out masticating teeth, the lower jaw is very flat and simple, and there is no ascending ramus. The 

 muscles of the lower jaw being of secondary importance, the arch (zygoma) of bona between the face 

 and the ear is incomplete, and the outside ear is very small. But the organ of hearing is somewhat 

 complicated, and there is a large space in the temporal bone which communicates with the internal 

 ear, so that one tympanum is in communication with the other. 



Much saliva is required to moisten the tongue, and the sub-maxillary glands are therefore very 

 large, and reach down under the skin of the neck on to the chest. The stomach is usually, if not 

 always, found to contain stones which the creature has swallowed. Of course it can hardly tell what 

 may be on its tongue in the dark Ants' nest, and earth and stones are likely to rest on it and be 

 swallowed, but the constant presence of these hard things may have something to do with the absence 



* Manis tetradactyla (Linn.). t Manis gigantea (Illiger). 



J Manis brachyura. Manis pentadactyla (Linn.). 



