352 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



licking up the insects with its sticky tongue, the Pangolin must neces- 

 sarily swallow a considerable amount of earth and gravel as well. 

 Now, as I myself have seen, it is often possible in the gold-bearing 

 districts to obtain a good show of "colour" by panning a piece of earth 

 broken at random off a termite-heap, and if in such a locality the 

 Pangolin is liable to swallow a certain amount of quartz pebbles as 

 well, its chances of picking up gold would be much increased. Al- 

 though the amount of the precious metal swallowed at any one time 

 would be small, yet it would probably tend to accumulate, as the 

 gastric juice would not act upon it. Thus that which, at first sight, 

 appears to be an absurd belief, will probably prove to be an actual fact. 

 Unfortunately the animal which I examined had come from a locality 

 right in the granite formation, and far from any known gold-belt ; so 

 that when I panned the quartz from its stomach no gold was to be 

 seen, although there was a good " tail " of pyrites. Some Blantyre 

 natives in my employ said that the Pangolin was common in their 

 country, but that they never ate it, nor did they know anything of 

 its auriferous qualities. — Guy A. K. Marshall (Salisbury, Mashona- 

 land). 



[I have known this interesting genus on two continents, and the 

 scaly skins of specimens from the Malay Peninsula {Manis javanica), 

 and the South African species on which Mr. Marshall has written, are 

 before me now. The word Pangolin is derived from the Malay Peng- 

 (joUnrj, signifying the animal which rolls itself up." The contents 

 found in the stomachs of these animals in the east are identical with 

 what Mr. Marshall discovered in his South African species. Cantor 

 found the stomach of a M. javanica extended by the remains (head and 

 legs) of large black ants, and also "five small rounded fragments of 

 granite."! In the Ceylon species (M. pentadactyla) Tennant found a 

 quantity of small stones and gravel, "which had been taken to facili- 

 tate digestion."! Mystical properties are also ascribed to the animals 

 in the east. Diard and Duvaucel, writing from Bencoolen, state that, 

 owing to the wonderful medicinal properties attributed to their scales 

 and nails by the natives, they found it very difficult to procure speci- 

 mens. § In the Indian highlands, Ball relates that the prevalent 

 native idea is that the creature is a land-fish, and that its flesh has 



■■' Marsdeu, ' Sumatra,' p. 118. 



f ' Cat. Mammalia, Malayan Peninsula and Islands,' J. A. S. Beng. 



vol. XV. 



I .' Nat. Hist. Ceylon,' p. 47. 



§ Cf. Miscell. Papers relating to Indo-China and Ind. Archipel. ser. 2, 

 vol. ii. p. 201. 



