346 EDENTATA. 



In the foregoing examples of tlie species, the skulls of M. pentadactyla, 

 M. aurita, and M. javanica measured in extreme length, respectively, 4*45 inches, 

 3 "45 inches, and 4 inches. 



The skull of an undoubted example of the common ant-eater of India, Jf. pen- 

 tadactyla (Plate XXIV, figs. 1 and 2) sent to me alive from Chota Nagpur by- 

 Colonel Dalton, C.S.I., is markedly distinct from either M. aurita or M. javanica^ 

 from both of -which it differs in the greater relative breadth of its occipito-parietal 

 region as compared with the facial portion, which is more abruptly and regularly 

 tapered than in either of these species, and this is not, as might be supposed, attri- 

 butable to youth, as the skull is fully adult. When viewed from above, the 

 cranium does not exhibit the marked orbital concavity in the outline which 

 distinguishes the skulls of these two species, and, moreover, the premaxillaries, 

 which in both of them are widely apart from the frontal, generally touch the latter 

 bone in 31. pentadactyla. The zygomatic arch of the Indian form is only, as a 

 rule, partially defined, and I have never observed a specimen in wliich it was entire, 

 although at the same time it is probable that it may be so in old animals. 



The skull of M. aurita (figs. 3 and 4) is distinguished from the skull of the 

 foregoing species by a greater fullness in the facial region immediately anterior to 

 the orbit and by a proportionally narrower occipito-parietal area than in M. penta- 

 dactyla. The nasal suture in Himalayan skulls is generally more rounded than in 

 those from Eastern China and Formosa, in which the nasals meet, as a rule, 

 in a point, but the character of this suture is most variable even in individuals 

 from the same region, and in Yiinnan skulls the suture is either straight or 

 rounded. The skulls from Eastern China exactly agree in form with skulls from 

 Darjeeling and from Western Yimnan, but it is noteworthy that the majority 

 of the skulls sent by Swinhoe to the British Museum are not fully adult, and 

 that the species attains to a much larger size than any of the animals from 

 which these skulls have been extracted. Notwithstanding, — and this is a remark- 

 able circumstance, — these comparatively young skulls, in a small percentage, form 

 a distinct zygomatic arch by the complete union of the zygomatic processes of the 

 superior maxilla and squamosal to a considerable degree of thickness. That these 

 skuUs are yet young is shown by the condition of their sutures, so -that the 

 formation of a zygomatic arch is not explicable by an overgrowth or undue ossific 

 tendency after adult age had been reached ; and it is interesting to observe that we 

 do not find associated with this zygomatic arch any variation in the external 

 characters of these ant-eaters from Eastern China by which they can be dis- 

 tinguished from M. aurita, Hodgson. 



The skull of 31. javanica (figs. 5 and 6) is at once distinguished from the 

 skulls of the two foregoing species by its very narrow and elongated character, 

 and in these respects it finds its equivalent ui the skulls of 3£. leptura 

 (fig. 7), and 3£. leucura (fig. 8), which are in no way separable from it; and 

 to place this beyond a doubt, I have figured the skuU of a specimen of 31. 

 javanica from Java, and alongside of it the two skulls of the types of these supposed 



