206 EDENTATA 
as an organ of touch. There are three species, viz. Alunis javanica, 
ranging from Burma, through Malacca and Java, to Borneo; Jf. 
auritu, found in China, Formosa, and Nipal; and the common Indian 
Pangolin, WZ. pentadactyla, distributed over the whole of India and 
Ceylon. The African species have the central series of scales 
suddenly interrupted and breaking into two at a point about 2 or 3 
inches from the tip of the tail; they have no hair between the 
scales, and no external ear-conch. The following are the four species 
belonging to this 
group: — the 
Long-tailed Pan- 
golin (J. mae- 
rura), which has 
a tail nearly twice 
as long as_ its 
body, and con- 
taining as many 
as forty-nine 
caudal vertebra, 
being the largest 
number known 
among mammals ; 
the White-bellied 
Pangolin (MZ. ft7- 
cuspis), Fig. 70, 
hats Ae Nh closely allied to 
oes z SS , ‘3 
ASG = 4 the last, but with 
oan € OS longer and _ tri- 
cuspid scales, and 
white belly hairs. 
These tio, like 
the Indian species, have a naked spot beneath the tail tip, a char- 
acter probably correlated with the power of climbing, and they 
are, moreover, peculiar in having the outer sides of their fore legs 
clothed with hair, all the other species being scaly there as else- 
where. Lastly, the Short-tailed and the Giant Pangolins (1. 
femmincki and gigantea), both of which have their tails covered 
entirely with scales, and evidently never take to arboreal habits. 
All the four species of the second group are found in the West 
African region, one only, AL temmincki, extending also into south 
and eastern equatorial Africa. 
According to Professor W. K. Parker,! who remarks upon the 
peculiarly aberrant nature of the group, the horny seales of the 
Pangolins really consist of cemented hairs. This writer states that 
“in the early embryo lozenge-shaped tracts of skin are seen all over 
* Mammalian Descent, p. 95, 
Fic. 70.—The White-bellied Pangolin (Manis tricuspis). 
