| OCR Text |
Show 1871.] DR. J. E. GRAY ON THE BRADYPODIDA. 447 or nearly white on the edge, and marked with irregular unsymmetrical brown spots. Bradypus ephippiger, Philippi, Archiv f. Naturg. 1870, p. 265, t. iii. 1, 2 (male and skull), is thus described:- " The Museum of Santiago has just received a male Bradypus, of the division Arctopithecus, which likewise has a yellow nape-patch, but in general colour agrees neither with B. gularis nor B. cucullatus nor B. infuscatus. Its face is clothed with rather fine, short, close hairs, which are grey around the mouth and nasal openings, yellowish white on the cheeks and forehead, whilst a brownish black streak begins in front of the eye, goes over the ear, and gradually mingles itself with the brownish black colour of the neck. The hairs always become longer and more rigid the nearer they are to the neck. The hairs on the crown are brownish black, much stiffer and longer than those on the face, but not so long as those of the body, and so directed forward that they stand over the white forehead like a roll. The hairs under the chin are light brown, and become on the throat gradually longer and darker. " The hairs of the body are more than two inches long, flat, some white, some grey-brown, so that on the sides and the extremities there is a somewhat piebald appearance, whilst those of the crown and occiput are dark brown, which colour gradually becomes lighter behind, palest and almost white on the underside of the belly. Between the shoulders and almost to the middle of the back there is a clear yellow patch, which is composed of thickly set hairs ; in the middle it displays a black streak, and on each side at the edges, close to the long-haired fur, three round black spots. The moderately short hairs of these spots are very different from the long, coarse, flat, bristly hairs, also from the far longer, far finer and softer, perpendicular wool-hairs, which are everywhere beneath tbe bristly hairs, and are white on the light parts of the body, and ash-grev on the darker parts. Each foot has three white equal-length claws." Hab. Uncertain. Brought to Santiago from either Guayaquil or Callao, probably obtained in Ecuador or North Peru. The description and the figure, which is not very good, agree pretty well with the male Arctopithecus griseus obtained by Mr. Salvin from Costa Rica, and it is evidently nearly allied to that species; but, if the figure of the hinder part of the lower jaw be correct and of a perfect specimen, it is very different from any skull of Arctopithecus I have seen. The lower hinder angle is much produced behind, broad, triangular, nearly equilateral, with a bifid end. The skull of two of the older specimens of A. griseus are unfortunately imperfect in the hinder part; but that of a young specimen has the hinder angle broad, rounded, and scarcely produced. All the specimens of A. griseus in the British Museum have a much larger and broader eye-streak than represented in the figure ; and the male has nearly the whole cheeks of a black colour, and not whitish, as described and figured. |
