APPENDIX A 323 



first discovered piece of skin. In fact, as Roth remarks, the pitting is 

 here quite similar to that observable on many ossicles dug up in associa- 

 tion with the fossil skeletons of Mylodon ; though it does not form so 

 regular a reticulate pattern as that of the dermal ossicles oi Mylodon 

 in the British Museum figured on the former occasion.* 



Another interesting feature of the new piece of skin consists in the 

 dwindling and even total absence of the ossicles towards the ventral 

 border. A section along the edge exhibits only two diminutive nodules 

 of bone in a length of o.i m. ; while another similar section taken 

 vertically from the skin of the limb shows no trace of ossicles, except 

 perhaps two little specks. It must, however, be noted that the limb 

 was not entirely destitute of armour ; for on the border the bones are as 

 well developed and conspicuous as on the middle of the flank. In the 

 newly-cut sections the skin has a translucent aspect, showing that it is 

 merely dried and not tanned in any way. 



The hair on the new specimen varies in length from 0.07 m. or 

 o.io m. to 0.15 m. or 0.22 m. It is thus longer than that of the 

 previous piece of skin. Masses of still longer hairs — some 0.30 m. 

 in length — were found detached among the excrement, and these are 

 also believed by Roth to belong to the same animal. His determina- 

 tion is probably correct ; for, when examined microscopically, these long 

 hairs are observed to have a perfectly smooth cuticle, while some trans- 

 verse sections (kindly made by Mr. R. H. Burne) demonstrate the com- 

 plete absence of a medulla, exactly as in the short hairs. The latter 

 feature proves that they cannot be referred either to the horse or to 

 the guanaco. 



Excrement. 



The large cylindrical pieces of excrement, which may be referred to 

 Grypotherium without any hesitation, have already been described and 

 figured by Dr. Roth. They consist of irregular discoids of herbaceous 

 matter closely pressed together, the largest measuring no less than o. 1 8 m. 

 in diameter. Mr. Spencer Moore has kindly examined them from the 

 botanist's point of view and reports that they are composed " in large 

 part apparently of grasses, as the haulms, leaf-sheaths, fragments of 

 leaves, &c., of these plants are frequent in the mass. A spikelet, almost 

 entire, of what seems to be a species of Poa, and the flowering glume of 

 another grass, probably avenaceous, have also been found. Besides these 

 there are at least two dicotyledonous plants, one herbaceous and the 

 other almost certainly so, the latter having a slender greatly sclerotised 

 stem. Unfortunately, as no leaves have hitherto been observed attached 



* P. Z. S. 1899, pi. XV. Figs. 4-6, 



