306 ME. n, M. WALLis ON THE GUOWTH [Mar. 2, 



C. albir/ularis. — Is bluntly pointed and plentifully fringed ; the 

 hairs cross tips at the point. Back of ear nude (fig. 28). 



C. petaurista. — Distinct, sharp, nude point ; fringe of hairs 

 directed to it. Short curving hairs upon the back, such as one 

 finds upon the back of a baby's ear (fig. 29). 



C. lala/idii, Juv. — Less hairy, same general characters. Tiny 

 tuft of darker hairs at the tip, and a few on back of ear poiut 

 towards the tip (figs. 30, 31). 



Monkey, sp.? — Ear fringed with converging growths. Point 

 definite and tufted with slightly longer hair (fig. 32). 



Macacus niauras (fig. 33). — A very bestial ear ; upper heUx 

 folded and hairy ; strong dark hairs from all parts of the ear 

 converge towards a definite point and crossing thei'e form a 

 noticeable tuft. 



Lemur, sp. ? (fig. 34). — Drawn from a specimen in spirit in the 

 Oxford University Museum. A distinctly infolded helLv \vith 

 hairy back ; no point or tuft. 



Ringed-tailed Lemur (fig. 35). — In same collection. A simple 

 discoidal ear, margin fringed near junction with head ; back hairy, 

 no trace of point. 



Loi'is {Nycticebus tarcligradus), fig. 36. — -Is so abundautly and 

 softly furred as to be ditticult to draw ; back of ear furry, with 

 but little definite " set." No indication of infolding, no point or 

 terminal tuft. 



Aye- Aye ( Cheiromys), fig. 37. — A simple bestial ear, not quadru- 

 mauous in character, almost naked, sparsely clothed inside with 

 fiue black hair directed to the tip, outside coarser and fewer black 

 hairs tipped with white are similarly directed. Xo fringe or tuft ; 

 no pohit. Eoot of ear (concha ?) thickly clothed with divergent 

 hairs pointing fanwise towards the circumference of the ear. 



Whilst contemplating a series of forms such as these it is 

 possible to follow in imagination the progressive degradation of 

 the external ear from a condition in vt'hich it was mobile and of 

 the utmost importance to its possessor to a state in which it 

 ceases to be functional. 



The presumably conspicuous leaf-shaped organ of some common 

 ancestor of the Aye-Aye, the Lemurs, and ourselves has dwindled 

 to a mere crumpled excrescence in the Gibbon, sans lobe, sans poiut, 

 sans hair, sans everything ! 



An ordinary human ear occupies an intermediate position, 

 although variations in the direction of a simian type may be found 

 in which the helix, or lobe, or both are wanting, whilst others show 

 a pithecine cusp directed laterally or even backwards. 



The testimony of the convergent hairs to the origin of this cusp 

 is so confirmatory of the view enunciated by Darwin that from 

 henceforth tlie fact of our ancestors having had pointed ears may 

 be regarded as established. 



V. Shape, Position, and Movements of the Ancestral Ear. 

 Is it possible from the phenomena under discussion to deduce 



