1869.] ANATOMY OF PROTELES. 477 
The fore foot has five toes: the third and fourth nearly equal in 
length; the second and fifth slightly shorter and equal ; the first, 
or pollex, very much shorter, its claw being midway between the 
wrist-joint and the claws of the other toes. The hind foot has only 
four, subequal toes: the fourth slightly the longest ; the third almost 
equal to it; the second and the fifth also nearly equal, but the second 
slightly the shorter of the two. Each foot has a single palmar or 
plantar naked pad, and one pad to each toe. 
The fur generally consists of a thick, soft, woolly, rather long and 
loose, wavy under-fur, interspersed with sparsely scattered straight stiff 
hairs, which project beyond the others. There are fewest of these on 
the under surface, and they increase in relative number above. Ina 
broad band along the back, extending from the occiput to the root of 
the tail, these stiffer hairs are elongated into a crest or mane, which 
falls over to one or the other side when the animal is quiescent, but 
can be erected when it is irritated. This crest is longest on the neck 
and shoulders, where the individual hairs attain the length of 8". 
On the face and cheeks the hair is short and stiff, gradually 
lengthening and becoming softer in passing backwards to the neck ; 
on the throat it is soft and short; on the feet, below the wrists and 
hocks, the hair is comparatively short, stiff, and adpressed. The 
upper surface of the toes is thickly covered, the hair reaching to near 
the middle of the claws. The upper and under surface of the webs 
between the toes are nearly naked; but their edges are fringed with 
long stiff hairs, which project between the naked pads of the toes. 
The hair is worn off from a small-rounded patch in front of each 
wrist-joint, as if the animal were in the habit of going on its ‘‘knees”’ *. 
There is also a rounded bare patch, *3!' in diameter, on the under 
surface of each heel; this appears normal and not worn. The rest 
of the hinder part of the tarso-metatarsal region is covered with 
hair as far as the plantar pad. 
The tail is covered with long, stiff, bristly hair; that on the upper 
surface longest (5!) and forming a kind of crest, so that the whole 
tail appears compressed from side to side. The crest of the back is 
not quite continuous with that of the tail, as the long stiff hairs are 
almost wanting at the root of the tail. 
The general ground-colour of the woolly fur all over the animal is 
a pale yellowish or reddish brown. The throat is paler, almost 
white. The chest, abdomen, and limbs are of a brighter or redder 
tint. The upper parts, from the greater admixture of the long stiff 
hairs, have a greyish hue, these hairs being yellowish white, with 
more or less of the tip black. Where they are very long, as in the 
mane and tail, besides a considerable portion of the tip being black, 
there is also a broad dark band across the hair, and in the extremely 
long hairs of the shoulders there are two bands. The greater part 
of the tail and the free edge of the mane is thus quite black. 
* Mr. Bartlett informs me that this is the habit both of Proteles and the 
Hyzenas, especially when fighting. He attributes it, at least in the case of the 
Hyzenas, to an instinctive dread lest their feet should be seized and crushed by 
the powerful jaws of their adversary. 
