The Zoologist — Octgjjer, 1870. 2315 



Having come under vay notice, some account of its habits, as far as I 

 was enabled to make them out, may be acceptable. The first was 

 a female, and rejoicing in the soubriquet of Scales.' She was crepus- 

 cular, and remained coiled up in a ball during the day, secure in her 

 scaly panoply. At the approach of night, however, she grew lively. 

 A creature whose habits require to be studied by the aid of a dark 

 lantern, must needs be interesting even to the most incurious observer ; 

 and a lizard-like mammal, whose every movement and attitude is 

 probably a living illustration of those great extinct quadrupeds which 

 once peopled the earth before man was created, must surely have the 

 power of arresting the attention, if not of stimulating the imagination, 

 of all who desire to penetrate the secrets of Nature. I doubt not 

 Professor Owen would have lain prone on his stomach all the livelong 

 night to watch the evolutions of this gnome-like mountaineer, in 

 whose aspect, as she prowled about at night, there was something old- 

 world and weird-like. The Scotch would say she had an * uncanny ' 

 look ; and truly, if but ten times bigger, she would unmistakably 

 have reminded one of the times before the deluge. When she walked, 

 she trod gingerly on the bent-under claws of her fore feet, and more 

 firmly on the palms of her hind feet. A very favourite attitude with 

 her was that assumed by her gigantic extinct analogue, the Mylodon, 

 as seen in the wondrous model of Waterhouse Hawkins in the gardens 

 of the Crystal Palace. The fore feet in my ' Madam Scales ' were 

 raised: and the animal was supported by the strong hind limbs, and 

 the firm, flattened, powerful, muscular tail, the head and body being at 

 the same time moved from side to side, and the little round prominent 

 eyes peering cautiously about in every direction. In walking the 

 fourth toe of the hind foot was also extended. The Chinese, in their 

 sly manner, said that she pretended to be very quiet, but ' spose no 

 man lookee,' she run very fast. She was certainly of an exceedingly 

 timid and retiring disposition, tucking in her head between her fore- 

 legs on the least alarm. So apathetic a quadruped appeared our 

 * Pangolin ' (for so was she called by the Malays) that, coiled up in a 

 strong net, I considered her properly secured, and carefully deposited 

 her in my cabin. No sooner, however, had the last gleam of light 

 vanished from my little 'scuttle,' than she knew the period of her 

 lethargy had expired, and, bursting the trammels of her hempen toil, 

 she roamed abroad. The first intimation I had of her escape was the 

 ominous bark of Master ' Wouff,' a clever little terrier on board. The 

 dog, puzzled by the queer scaly rat he had suddenly encountered, 



