344 EDENTATA. 



obliterated before tliey reach the apex, which is almost smooth. Each scale also in the 

 young state is marked by either one or three lines of growth. In M. pentadactyla, 

 but more especially in M. aurita, the scales get worn down into hexagons, and the 

 sharp points of the lateral line of scales in all the species, and which are especially 

 prominent in young and semi-adult examples of M. javanica, get so abraded by 

 friction that the sides of the tail become quite smooth. 



In the young of all the species the scales are much more lightly coloured than 

 in the adults, but neither M. aurita nor M. javanica is ever so pale yellow as 

 M. pentadactyla. In the young of M. aurita the basal portion of the scales is 

 dark brown, but the remainder is more or less variegated with horny yellow which in 

 the tail scales is generally restricted to their margins. In M. pentadactyla there 

 is little or no variation in the pale olive-brown, but M. javanica resembles M. aurita 

 in the parti- colouring of its scales. In the adult of the latter, I have occasionally 

 olDserved the perfectly smooth scales very regularly marked with rather clear con- 

 centric rings of pale yellow; whilst in others the centres of the scales outside 

 the limbs and on the flanks are coloured pale yellowish, a similar distribution 

 of colour occurring also in 31. javanica. In M. javanica, moreover, there is a 

 tendency in the yellow to spread over a series of scales involving considerable 

 areas, and this is most prevalent on the extremity of the tail ; and it was this 

 and some other characters that led Blytli to describe this form under the name 

 of 3£. leucura. 



As is well known, a number of strong yellowish hairs or bristles occur at the 

 base of each scale, generally arranged in three or four groups and projecting outwards 

 externally between the overlapping scales. In the adult the exposed portion of these 

 hairs is worn away by abrasion. 



The head-scales clothe the upper surface of the head as far forwards as on 

 a line with the middle of the mouth, terminating in a single scale. Besides the 

 sides of the head and neck, chin, throat, chest, belly, and inside of the limbs, and 

 an extensive area around the vent, and all of which are destitute of scales, a scaleless 

 area occurs on the hind leg in the region of the knee-joint along the outside of 

 the limb, but it is more or less protected by the row of scales above it, but when 

 the limb is backwardly expanded to its utmost limit, this scaleless patch is 

 visible externally. No such patch occurs on the fore limb. Its function is to 

 permit of the inward bending and stowing away of the limb when the animal 

 is coiled up. All the scaleless parts are more or less clad with short reddish- 

 brown or yellowish hairs, which appear to be most numerous in semi-adult 

 individuals, but the upper part of the nose is bare and destitute of hairs. The tip 

 of the nose over the nostril, the external skin of the nasal septum, the skin between 

 the lower anterior third of the nostrils and the upper lip, and the tip of the 

 lower lip, have a honeycombed appearance in M. pentadactyla, each cell, as it were, 

 having a central depression resembling the entrance to a glandular duct. The skin 

 behind and at the two posterior thirds of the nostrils and along the upper and 

 the lower lip is quite smooth. This smooth space extends behind the posterior end of 



