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Show 1869.] ANATOMY OF PROTELES. 477 The fore foot has five toes: the third and fourth nearly equal in length; the second and fifth slightly shorter and equal*; the first, or pollex, very much shorter, its claw being midway between the wrist-joint and the claws of the other toes. The hind foot has only four, subequal toes : the fourth slightly the longest; the third almost equal to it; the second and the fifth also nearly equal, but the second slightly the shorter of the two. Each foot has a single palmar or plantar naked pad, and one pad to each toe. The fur generally consists of a thick, soft, woolly, rather long and loose, wavy under-fur, interspersed with sparsely scattered straight stiff hairs, which project beyond the others. There are fewest of these on the under surface, and they increase in relative number above. In a broad band along the back, extending from the occiput to the root of the tail, these stiffer hairs are elongated into a crest or mane, which falls over to one or the other side when the animal is quiescent, but can be erected when it is irritated. This crest is longest on the neck and shoulders, where the individual hairs attain the length of 8". On the face and cheeks the hair is short and stiff, gradually lengthening and becoming softer in passing backwards to the neck; on the throat it is soft and short; on the feet, below the wrists and hocks, the hair is comparatively short, stiff, and adpressed. The upper surface of the toes is thickly covered, the hair reaching to near the middle of the claws. The upper and under surface of the webs between the toes are nearly naked; but their edges are fringed with long stiff hairs, which project between the naked pads of the toes. The hair is worn off from a small rounded patch in front of each wrist-joint, as if the animal were in the habit of going on its "knees" *. There is also a rounded bare patch, *3" in diameter, on the under surface of each heel; this appears normal and not worn. The rest of the hinder part of the tarso-metatarsal region is covered with hair as far as the plantar pad. The tail is covered with long, stiff, bristly hair ; that on the upper surface longest (5") and forming a kind of crest, so that the whole tail appears compressed from side to side. The crest of the back is not quite continuous with that of the tail, as the long stiff hairs are almost wanting at the root of the tail. The general ground-colour of the woolly fur all over the animal is a pale yellowish or reddish brown. The throat is paler, almost white. The chest, abdomen, and limbs are of a brighter or redder tint. The upper parts, from the greater admixture of the long stiff hairs, have a greyish hue, these hairs being yellowish white, with more or less of the tip black. Where they are very long, as in the mane and tail, besides a considerable portion of the tip being black, there is also a broad dark band across the hair, and in the extremely long hairs of the shoulders there are two bands. The greater part of the tail and the free edge of the mane is thus quite black. * Mr. Bartlett informs m e that this is the habit both of Proteles and the Hyamas, especially when fighting. H e attributes it, at least in the case of the Hyaenas, to an instinctive dread lest their feet should be seized and crushed by the powerful jaws of their adversary. |
