1910.] 



CUTANEOUS SCEXT-GLAXDS OF RUMIXANTS. 



919 



hairs surrounding tlie opening of a peculiar gland containing a 

 fatty secretion." This is not quite an accui'ate description of the 

 glands, according to my observations. The long blackish hairs 

 marking each gland form a subelliptical elongated mat. The hairs 

 point downwards, but those on each side of tlie middle line of the 

 mat are inclined inwards, meeting at their tips and marking a 

 central streak. When these converging hairs are pulled on one 

 side it may be seen that they overlap an elongated area of naked 

 skin, broadest across the middle, pointed above and below, and 

 more than twice as long as wide. This naked area was covered, 

 in the specimen examined, with secretion and the skin composing 



Text-fiij. 114. 



2Ep\jcevos melampus. 



A. Median vertical section of hind foot. 



B. Hind foot to sho«- the mat of hairs (</?.) marking one of the metatarsal 



glands and the tuft {<) representing the false hoofs. 



it was shown in section to be exceedingly thin. The skin sur- 

 rounding it was, however, markedly thickened, especially exter- 

 nally, where it formed a distinct upstanding ridge. It was upon 

 this thickened skin that the long hairs forming the mat «v%\\ ■ 

 and, since the bases of these hairs were clogged with seci^tion^ 

 I infer that the thickened rim of skin is the .se'creting area of the 

 gland and that the depressed naked area constitutes the floor of a 

 kind of reservoir for the secretion, which is conducted downwards 

 by the downward-growing long hairs. 



The area of the false hoofs, which are themselves absent, is 



60* 



