RELATIONSHIP OF ARMADILLO TO OTHER MAMMALS 219 



The curious part is that the tail of this Rhinoceros is also 

 covered with similar plates disposed ring-fashion like those of the 

 tail of an Armadillo. 



Here then we have a Rhinoceros encased in armour, almost 

 exactly in essence like that of an Armadillo. 



A glance at the other species of Rhinoceros in the Natural 

 History Museum teaches us something more in our endeavour 

 to discover further evidence of the relationship of these mammals 

 and the Horse. For R. Unicornis (India) has the skin covered 

 with hide tubercles only, without any deposit of bone-plates, 

 admitting of a freer movement. R. Sumatrensis (two-horned) is 

 the smallest and the most hairy, the skin being only rough and 

 granular with the folds of skin less marked. It is evidently a type 

 which has passed from the plated to the smooth and hairy mammal. 

 This also is met with at a high elevation (4000 feet). There are 

 variations of the Sumatran Rhinoceros from Chittagong and 

 Malacca, which have a still smoother skin and longer hair. We 

 come ultimately to the African species, which have neither plates, 

 nor folds, nor hair of consequence, and their skin is nearly as smooth 

 as that of a Porpoise, making allowance for the difference of the 

 medium in which these two kinds of animals live. 



Then in Fig. 79 I have given what appears to m.e a variation of 

 Rhinoceros Sondaicus. It is not only covered with small plates, 

 from head to foot, but it has a curious, and, may be, instructive 

 variation of plating on its flank. About this I have something to 

 say in another place. In the meantime, in Fig. 80 I give four 

 groups of plates, picked out from what I suppose to be a R. 

 Sondaicus (Fig. 79). These groups are not unlike the rosettes 

 of the Armadillo of Fig. 78 ic). 



It will be seen that the Indian Rhinoceros of Fig. "jj, although 

 it has lost its bone-rosettes, has retained hide-knobs, disposed 



