A Manis with a tail as long as the body, and with the scales of the hind feet acutely pointed, and the front and hind claws nearly equal in size, is found in Sumatra and in Java. Finally, the other Asiatic kind, Manis Dalmannii, is found in the Himalayas, China, and possibly in Java.
All the species of the genus Manis, whether from Africa or Asia, are absolutely toothless, and the Edentate peculiarity is perfect, for there are no back teeth. The tongue is worm-like, round, very long, and can be stuck out far from the mouth, and it supplies the want of the teeth, but from having this long organ and no back teeth, the palate and the skull are very long and conical. Being without masticating teeth, the lower jaw is very flat and simple, and there is no ascending ramus. The muscles of the lower jaw being of secondary importance, the arch (zygoma) of bone between the face and the ear is incomplete, and the outside ear is very small. But the organ of hearing is somewhat complicated, and there is a large space in the temporal bone which communicates with the internal ear, so that one tympanum is in communication with the other.
Much saliva is required to moisten the tongue, and the sub-maxillary glands are therefore very large, and reach down under the skin of the neck on to the chest. The stomach is usually, if not always, found to contain stones which the creature has swallowed. Of course it can hardly tell what may be on its tongue in the dark Ants’ nest, and earth and stones are likely to rest on it and be swallowed, but the constant presence of these hard things may have something to do with the absence of the teeth, and the necessity of having a crushing material somewhere or other. The walls of the stomach are thin near the entry of the gullet tube, but towards the pylorus, or the right side end, the muscles are well developed, and the mucous membrane is very dense.
These animals use their claws for the purpose of digging holes in the ground, or in the Ants’ nests, for the sake of food, and the position in walking is with the front claws bent under, so that the whole weight of the front of the body is felt on the back (or upper part) of the claws. The hind feet are placed flat, and the sole and under part of the claws sustain the hinder quarters. The joints of the five fingers of the fore feet are so arranged that they can bend downwards only, and indeed they are more or less permanently bent, being kept in that position by strong ligaments. This assists the digging powers of the claws, which are, moreover, forked at their points in some species, and the wrist is rendered very strong by having the joints between two of its bones abolished, and they are united by bone, as in the carnivorous animals. The bones thus united are the scaphoid and semi-lunar bones. Every structure in the creature’s fore limbs tends to the promotion of easy and powerful digging, and as the motion of scratching the ground is directly downwards and backwards, the power of moving the wrist half round, and presenting the palm more or less upwards, as in the Sloths and in man, does not exist. In order to prevent this pronation and supination, the part of the fore-arm bone, the radius, next to the elbow, is not rounded, but forms part of a hinge joint. Finally, it is necessary to observe, that the middle claw is the longest of the five on all the extremities, and that as the animal does not require to reach over its head, there is no collar bone.
FIVE-FINGERED PANGOLIN.
The long tail of the Pangolins, stumpy at the end in some kinds, has a considerable number of bones, usually twenty-six; and the first of them joins on to the last of the back bones of the pelvis. This last, or sacral vertebra, unites on each side with the haunch bones (ischium), and there is no notch in the bone for the passages of the great nerves of the back of the leg, but a hole.
The thigh bone is flattened from before backwards, and the bones of the leg are wide apart, and all this gives extra powers to the muscles which have to direct the scraping and digging by the hind feet. The feet are solid and strong, and have not any of the inside turning and club-foot appearance of the Sloths, and the heel bone projects backwards.
There is an interesting peculiarity about the chest of the Pangolins, for the breast bone is very long, and the cartilage at its end is large, and has two long projections resembling those of the Lizards. The neck consists of seven vertebræ, and the back of thirteen, and there are three or four in the sacrum.