a species of the manis peculiar to Hindoostan. It is certainly a remarkable variety, if not a different species, of the pangolin of Buffon. According to a paper in the first volume of the Asiatic Researches, "it has hardly any neck; and, though some filaments are discernible between the scales, they can scarce be called brittle. But the principal difference is in the tail; that of Buffon's animal being long, and tapering almost to a point; while that of ours is much shorter, ends obtusely, and resembles in form and flexibility the tail of a lobster. In other respects it seems to have all the characters of Buffon's pangolin; a name derived from that by which the animal is distinguished in Java, and consequently preferable to Manis, or Pholidotus, or any other appellation deduced from an European language. We are told that the Malabar name of this animal is alanggu. The natives of Bahar call it bajur-cit, or, as they explain the word, stone vermine; and in the stomach of the animal before us was found about a teacupful of small stones, which had probably been swallowed for the purpose of facilitating digestion; but the name alludes, we believe, to the hardness of the scales: for vajracita means in Sanscrit the diamond or thunderbolt reptile; and sajira is a common figure in the Indian poetry for anything excessively hard. The vajracita is believed by the Pandits to be the animal which gnaws their sacred stone called falgramafla; but the pangolin has apparently no teeth; and the falgrams, many of which look as if they had been worm-eaten, are perhaps only decayed in part by exposure to the air.

"This animal had a long tongue shaped like that of a chameleon; and if it was nearly adult, as we may conclude from the young one found in it, the dimensions of it were much less than those which Buffon affirms generally to his pangolin; for he describes its length as six, seven, or eight feet, including the tail, which is almost, he says, as long as the body when it has attained its full growth: whereas ours is but 34 inches long from the extremity of the tail to the point of the snout, and the length of the tail is 14 inches; but, exclusively of the head, which is five inches long, the tail and body are indeed nearly of the same length; and the small difference between them may show, if

Buffon Buffon be correct in this point, that the animal was young. The circumference of its body in the thickest part is 20 inches, and that of the tail only 12. There are on each foot five claws, of which the outer and inner are small when compared with the other three. There are no distinct toes; but each nail is moveable by a joint at its root. This creature is extremely inoffensive. It has no teeth, and its feet are unable to grasp. Hence it would appear, that nature, having furnished it with a coat of mail for its protection, has, with some regard to justice, denied it the powers of acting with hostility against its fellow creatures. The nails are well adapted for digging in the ground; and the animal is so dexterous in eluding its enemies by concealing itself in holes and among rocks, that it is extremely difficult to procure one.

"The upper jaw is covered with a crofs cartilaginous ridge, which, though apparently not at all suited to any purpose of mastication, may, by increasing the surface of the palate, extend the sense of taste. The esophagus will admit a man's forefinger with ease. The tongue at the bottom of the mouth is nearly about the size of the little finger, from whence it tapers to a point. The animal at pleasure protrudes this member a great way from the mouth. The tongue arises from the ensiform cartilage, and the contiguous muscles of the belly, and passes in form of a round distinct muscle from over the stomach, through the thorax, immediately under the sternum; and interior to the windpipe in the throat. When dissected out, the tongue could be easily elongated so as to reach more than the length of the animal exclusive of its tail. There is a cluster of salivary glands seated around the tongue, as it enters the mouth. These will necessarily be compressed by the action of the tongue; so as occasionally to supply a plentiful flow of their secretion.

"The stomach is cartilaginous, and analogous to that of the gallinaceous tribe of birds. When dissected, it is generally found full of small stones and gravel, which in India are almost universally calcareous. The inner surface of the stomach is rough to the feel, and formed into folds, the interstices of which are filled with a frothy secretion. The guts are filled with a sandy pulp, in which, however, are interperforated a few distinct small stones. No vestiges of any animal or vegetable food have been traced in the whole prime vire. The gall-bladder is commonly distended with a fluid resembling in colour and consistence the dregs of beer. It is a viviparous animal.

"From the contents of its stomach and prime vire, the pangolin has been supposed by Mr Burt, a very eminent surgeon in Bengal, to derive its nourishment from mineral substances. Though we have perhaps no clear idea of the manner in which vegetables extract their nourishment from earth, yet the fact being so, it may not be unreasonable to suppose, that some animal may derive nutriment by a process somewhat similar.

"When other substances (says our author) shall have been detected in the stomach of this animal, my inference, from what I have seen, must necessarily fall to the ground. But if, like other animals with muscular and cartilaginous stomachs, this singular quadruped consume grain, it must be surprising that no vestige of such food was found present in the whole alimentary canal, since in that thinly inhabited country, the wild animals are free to feed without intrusion from man. Nor can it be inferred from the structure of the stomach, that this animal lives on ants or on insects. Animals devoured as food, though of considerable size and solidity, with a proportionally small extent of surface to be acted on by the gastric juice and the action of the stomach, are readily digested and digested by animals possessing not a cartilaginous but a membranaceous stomach, as, for instance, a frog in that of a snake.

"In the stomach many minerals are soluble, and the most active things which we can swallow. Calcareous substances are readily acted on. Dr Priefley has asked, 'May not phlogistic matter be the most essential part of the food and support of both vegetable and animal bodies?' I confess, that Dr Priefley's finding came to propose the question, inclines me to suppose, that the affirmative to it may be true. Earth seems to be the basis of all animal matter. The growth of the bones must be attended with a constant supply, and in the human species there is a copious discharge of calcareous matter thrown out by the kidneys and salivary glands. May not the quadruped in question derive phlogiston from earth; salt, from mineral substances? And, as it is not deprived of the power of drinking water, what else is necessary to the subsistence of his corporeal machine?

"Considering the fleshy covering of this animal, we may conceive, that it may be at least necessary for its existence, on that account, to imbibe a greater proportion of earth than is necessary to other animals. It may deserve consideration, that birds are covered with feathers, which, in their constituent principles, approach to the nature of horn and bone. Of these animals, the gallinaceous tribe swallow stones; and the carnivorous take in the feathers and bones of their prey: the latter article is known to be soluble in the membranaceous stomachs; and hence is a copious supply of the earthly principles. In truth I do not know that anything is soluble in the stomach of animals, which may not be thence absorbed into their circulating system; and nothing can be so fortified without affecting the whole constitution. These conjectures are not a little confirmed by the experiments of M. Bravatelli of Pavia, on the authority of M. Crel, by which we learn, that some birds have so great a diffusing power in the gastric juice, as to dissolve in their stomachs flints, rock crystal, calcareous stones, and shells." See Manis.