ut THE SERVICE OF TAILS 67 
son Tait has pointed out, is that it answers the 
purpose of a respirator, warming the air, before 
it is breathed, to a temperature more suitable for 
health, and one that will detract less heat from 
the body than would air entering the lungs wholly 
untempered. 
An extension of this overcoat idea into that of 
a coat of mail is exhibited in certain of the arma- 
dillos, as the tatusids, where the scaly investiture 
of the long tail is a part of the protection of the 
soft under-parts when the animal rolls itself into 
a ball and defies its enemy’s teeth. The same is 
true of the larger pangolins, whose tail, covered 
with scales on the outside, and held closely 
appressed to its rolled-up body, is a very impor- 
tant part of its self-protection. In that excellent 
book, William T. Hornaday’s “Two Years in the 
Jungle,” you may read a most instructive account 
of the Indian species of pangolin (Manzs pentadac- 
tyla), a live example of which was kept by the 
author for some time, as follows: 
“My new pet evidently expected fair treatment 
at our hands, for he soon uncoiled himself and 
stood up for examination. He was just three feet 
long, including his tail,—which by itself measured 
seventeen inches,—and his weight was eighteen 
pounds. This tail was a most useful appendage, 
for it was very broad, measuring five and a half 
inches across where it joined the body, slightly 
hollowed underneath and rounded on the top, its 
n 
