NOTES 313 



the cats of Portugal when I lived there about 1876. The kink, I 

 was told, was there believed to have become hereditary from a 

 custom long practised by the Portuguese of pinching or breaking 

 the tails of the new-born kittens, and it would be of special interest 

 if the fact could be established that the kink in Malayan cats' tails 

 had been communicated to them through those imported by the 

 early Portuguese into the East. My recollection is that I exhibited 

 the skin presented to the Liverpool Museum of the cat in ques- 

 tion only, and that the body presented to Herdman after removal 

 by my taxidermist from the skin was dissected and the anatomical 

 data discussed by him at the same meeting. If I can trust my 

 memory, the tail of this particular cat, though short and kinked, had 

 its full number of vertebrae, some of them reduced in size and 

 wedge-shaped (bones not cartilage), which produced the kink. 

 These were really deformed vertebrae, which, together with the 

 undeformed vertebrae, completed the full number found in normal 

 tails of Felis domestica." 



Professor W. A. Herdman, F.R.S., has written, saying that his 

 memory agreed with that of Dr. Forbes. He also kindly enclosed 

 the following copy of all that was published on the subject : 



From Proceedings of the Liverpool Biological Soc. t vol. IX. (1895), 

 p. xi. 



"At the 4th meeting of the session, on Jan. n, 1895, Prof. Gotch, 

 President, in the chair. 



"i. ... 



"2. Dr. H. O. Forbes and Prof. Herdman, F.R.S., described some 

 of the anatomical peculiarities of the tail of a Siamese Cat belonging 

 to Mr. Richard D. Holt. Mr. Ridley, of the Botanic Gardens, 

 Singapore, added some further remarks on the habits of the 

 animals. The skeleton and stuffed specimen were exhibited." 



The subject seems to be well worthy of detailed investigation, 

 and breeding experiments on Mendelian lines may be expected to 

 yield interesting results. E. B. P. 



NOTE 5, p. 32. Prehensile-tailed Mammals in Old World. A. R. 

 Wallace states in his Malay Archipelago, 1869, vol. I., p. 211, that the 

 tail of Galeopithecus " is prehensile, and is probably made use of as 

 an additional support while feeding." Mr. Oldfield Thomas, F.R.S., 

 " doubts whether the tail of Galeopithecus is prehensile, as it is 

 included to the tip in the interfemoral membrane, and its under side 

 is hairy to the end. Probably, as with Bats, it is used to retain insect 

 captures of sorts, its general build being very much as in many 

 Bats. It is, however, curled downwards at the end, and the hook so 



