474: 



VERTEBRATA. 



THE INDIAN PANGOLIN OR MANIS. 



Genus PANGOLIN : Manis. — Of this, the only genus belonging to the family, there are sev- 

 eral species. 



The Indian Manis — also called the Broad-tailed and the Short-tailed Manis — M. lalicau- 

 data, is supposed to be the Phatagin of the ancients. One of its Asiatic names is Land- Carp ; 

 with the Mahrattas it is called Kuwlee Manjar, or Tiled-Cat. Its head is small, pointed, and 

 conic: muzzle elongated and narrow; body rather stout; tail short and very broad at its basi : 

 dorsal scales disposed in longitudinal rows to the number of eleven ; under part of the body, 

 head, and feet naked; some long fair-colored hairs spring from under the scales; the middle 

 claw of the fore-feet far exceeds the others in its proportions. It is a native of the East Indies, 

 coast of Tranijuebar, Ceylon, <fcc. It feeds much on termites, or white ants, for the destruction 

 of whose conical nests the great middle claw is admirably adapted. It seizes them very much 

 in the manner of the ant-eaters, with its long, tensile, glutinous tongue. The Dutch call it the 

 Xiijiniilji) fJcril, and the Cingalese, Caballe. Thunberg informs us that the inhabitants of the 

 latter country have a method of making a hole in its skin with a knife, and thus of guiding and 

 governing the animal at their pleasure, the point of the knife, which is kept in the hole, goading 

 ami irritating it. 



Temminck's Manis, M. Temminckii, has large scales arranged in eleven rows; the length of 

 the body is about fourteen inches, and of the tail twelve ; width of the back eight inches, and of 

 the tail five inches, the latter being rounded and almost truncate at the end. It does not attempt 

 to escape from man, but rolls itself into a ball, taking special care of its head. Ants constitute 

 its chief and favorite food, and these it secures by extending its projectile tongue into holes which 

 may exist in the habitations of these insects, or which it may itself form ; and when, l>y means of 

 the glutinous matter with which its tongue is covered, a full load has been received, a sudden re- 

 traction of the retractor muscles carries both into its mouth, after which the ants arc immediately 

 -wallowed. This species is found in South Africa. 



Other species of Munis or Pangolin are the M. Dalmanni, found in the environs of Cantor, 

 China, and called Tchin-kian-kiapp by the natives; the Rough Pangolin, M. aspera, of Suma- 

 tra; the Javanese Pangolin, or Tangillin, M. Javanica, of Sumatra, Borneo, and the Cel 

 and Guy's Pangolin, M. Guy, found in Africa. 



The Long-tailed .Manis, or Pangolin, M. longicavdata, or M. tetradactyla — the Phatagin of 

 Buffon — is a most extraordinary creature, having a body nearly two feet long, and a tail twice as 

 long as the body. This is found in Senegal, Guinea, &c. Two other species of Long-tailed Pango- 

 lins or Phatagins are the M. tricuspis of Guinea, and the M. tridentata of Mozambique. 



Fossil Edentata. — South America seems to be the theater on which, in times past as well as 

 present, the order of Edentata has had its chief development. The gigantic nature of the remains 

 of several species, now extinct, but bearing a general resemblance to existing races, is a suhject of 



