205 



being in any way modified by the colours placed underneath it. The 

 general tints approximate, as may readily be observed, to those of the 

 branches of trees, just as those of most animals do to the places in 

 which they dwell ; but I have never seen the faculty of changing 

 called into play with any apparent object. It is only when the light 

 is removed that the animal assumes a colour which absorbs but little 

 of it. 



Regretting that I have not been able to attain any more definite 

 conclusions, I offer these few remarks, hoping that to some naturalist, 

 who may undertake the investigation of these singular phsenomena, 

 they may prove not to have been thrown away. 



Pimlico, July 1851. 



3. On the Arrangement of the Edentate Mammalia. 

 By H. N. Turner, Jun. 



In offering to the Society a summary of my observations on the 

 craniology of the Edentate order, I have not so great a number of 

 hitherto unrecorded facts to bring forward as in some of my former 

 communications. The very remarkable modifications which this order 

 is seen to present, not only in comparison with the rest of the Mam- 

 malian class, but also among its own members, and the wonderful 

 variety of extinct gigantic species which the New World has yielded 

 to research, have caused the osteology of the group to be more mi- 

 nutely investigated ; while the small number of species and the striking 

 external differences which they exhibit, have left but little room for 

 doubt in the minds of naturahsts as to their true arrangement. I will 

 therefore simply point out such of the cranial peculiarities as seem to 

 be characteristic of the order and of its families and genera, dividing 

 it, as appears to me necessary, into five famihes, since the two forms 

 inhabiting the Old World differ so much from each other, and from 

 the three groups into which those of the New World naturally divide 

 themselves, that although each consists of a single genus, and one of 

 but a single species, it seems requisite that both should stand di- 

 stinct. It vdll also be necessary to remodel the genera of the Arma- 

 dilloes, and to define them anew by their external characters as well 

 as by those of the skull, since the presence of a tooth in each of the 

 intermaxillary bones of a single species of the family has prevented 

 the essential similarities and differences from being duly appre- 

 ciated. 



Although some few naturalists may still associate this order with 

 the true Ungulata, for the sake of keeping the divisions of the class 

 within the predetermined number five, I think that most of those 

 who have given particular attention to the subject will agree, that 

 so natural and strongly-marked a group is well worthy of isolation, 

 which was the opinion of Linnaeus and Cuvier, although the former 

 wrongly associated with it a few genera belonging properly to other 

 groups. 



The characters possessed in common by the members of so diver- 



