1934] Hatt, American Museum Congo Expedition Pangolins and Aard-Varks 649 



cords cut in. One old male from Niapu (53854) possesses a large number 

 of small accessory scales largely underlying, though in some instances 

 projecting beyond, a normal scale. These supernumerary scales vary 

 from styliform to falciform. None approach the normal form or size for 

 the region in which they are located. 



The scale counts of gigantea and temminckii have been reported by 

 others, and the present series adds little to our knowledge concerning the 

 variation in these numbers. 



Hair. — The species is hairless, except for a dense ring of short, 

 circumorbital bristles and a patch of similar hairs in front of the audi- 

 tory meatus. No other trace of hair is found on either the dried skins or 

 the embryos preserved in alcohol. 



Skull. — Within the series of gigantea skulls from the Congo collec- 

 tion there is little variation due to factors other than age, sex, and injury. 

 One female (53853) presents great asymmetry in the occipital region, and 

 in another (53851) there is extensive malformation in the nasals and 

 frontals due, apparently, to injury occasioned by the long-continued 

 restraint of a tightly binding halter. The second and third cervical 

 vertebrae of this specimen are fused, the result certainly of abnormal 

 conditions. Two of twelve skulls show bregmatic bones. The dorsal 

 profile is in some crania very nearly straight, but in others it presents a 

 marked depression in the frontal region. (Contrast Nos. 53849 and 

 53846.) This seems, however, not to be correlated with age or sex. 

 Among the features presenting extensive individual variation that are 

 seen in the basal surface of the skulls are the configuration of the ventral 

 margin of the foramen magnum, the shape and size of the interpterygoid 

 fossa, the shape of the palatine notch, the caudal extension of the pala- 

 tine processes of the maxillae, and the presence of a palatine surface on 

 the vomer. 



The only sexual difference which I have found in the skulls is the 

 attainment of greater size in the males and the sutures closing in the 

 females when the skull is smaller than at the time corresponding closures 

 occur in the males. 



Age changes involve little other than increase in size, thickness and 

 density of bone, closure of sutures, and reduction in the height of the 

 lateral palatine ridge. The closure of the principal sutures in and across 

 the median plane is approximately as follows: dorsomedian suture of 

 exoccipitalia; basioccipital-basisphenoidal and the basisphenoidal- 

 presphenoidal suture; frontal suture; nasal suture (occurring in old 

 age). 



