Pangolin

“ The Asiatic pangolins are characterized by having the central series of body-scales continued to the extreme end of the tail, by having many isolated hairs growing between the scales of the back, and by their small external ears. They all have a small naked spot beneath the tip of the tail, which is said to be of service as an organ of touch. ”

“ On such a terrace one will find the remains of deer, wild hog, dog, pig, porcupine, pangolin, and other animals both domestic and wild. A fresh kill shows that with its rasp-like tongue the tiger licks off all the hair of its prey before devouring it and the hair will be found in a circle around what remains of the kill. The Chinese often raid a lair in order to gather up the quills of the porcupine and the bony scales of the pangolin which are esteemed for medicinal purposes. ”

“ They dwell in forests, where they dig burrows, or lodge in the hollow of trees. When they are attacked, they roll themselves into a ball, like the Armadillo; at the same time their scales are erected, forming an impregnable buckler. This family possesses several species.
The Pangolins are of medium size; they never exceed a yard in length. They are natives of the Old World exclusively; India and the Malay Isles, the south of China, and a great part of Africa, are the regions in which they are usually found. ”

“ But if the ipi and the pangolin can not bend their bodies sideways, they are very flexible vertically, their stomachs having no scales; so, if they are surprised or want to sleep, they roll themselves in a ball, the head being inside and forming the centre, and they coil and uncoil themselves in this manner very readily. ”

“ Lastly, the pangolin (Manis) is represented by two species in the eastern Himalaya. A dolphin (Platanista) living in the Ganges ascends that river and its affluents to their issue from the mountains.
Almost all the orders of birds are well represented, and the marvellous variety of forms found in the eastern Himalaya is only rivalled in Central and South America. Eagles, vultures and other birds of prey are seen soaring high over the highest of the forest-clad ranges. ”

“ All lizards are covered with a sleek speckled skin, in representation of scales, but these animals have no scales on their throat, breast, or belly, the phatagen, or long-tailed manis, (fig. 126) like other quadrupeds, has hair on all these under parts of the body; the pangolin, or short-tailed manis (fig. 125) has nothing but a smooth skin without hair. The scales with which all the other parts of the bodies of [194] these two animals are covered do not stick to the skin, they are only strongly fixed at the lower parts, being moveable, like the quills of a porcupine, at the will of the animal ”

“ Moreover, the populations of some of the slower moving animals such as the elephant and the giant pangolin will have been subject to his hunting, while his dogs would have worried smaller faster ground moving animal such as duikers. ”

“ 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, Mashonaland) . ”

“ Still more would the Pangolins flourish, for though they are toothless and walk very clumsily, because their front feet are bent under so that they tread on the upper part, yet they have two means of protection.204 First, like the ant-eater, they live chiefly underground and come out at night; and secondly, their back is covered with sharp-edged scales, which grow from the skin as hairs do, and can be raised into a complete cheval-de-frise as they roll themselves up, or tuck their tail and head between their legs when they are attacked. ”

“ It could hardly be applied to the serow or to the pangolin. The former of these two is a roaming animal and rarely sleeps long in the same spot, which offers an obvious reason for the prohibition. The pangolin is such a curious beast that anyone might shy at eating him. The Sema forbids gibbon meat lest the children inherit the cry.—J. H. H. ↑
36 A Lhota woman was accused in my court of having poisoned her husband under circumstances which left little doubt as to her guilt in my mind, though the charge could not be proved in court. ”

“ Mammals are scarce. No marsupials occur. The edentates are represented by the pangolin (Manis sp?) of the Palawan group. In the seas are found the dolphin, cachalot and dugong. Wild hogs of at least two species occur. The beautiful axis deer of Sulu has apparently been brought there by man. Red or brown deer occur in Basilan, Mindanao, Leyte, Samar and the Calamianes Islands. The number of species and their respective ranges have not been satisfactorily determined. In Masbate, Panay, Guimaras and Negros there is a dark-coloured species marked with buff spots. ”

“ Like the ant-eater of South America, the pangolins have no teeth, but they have a long extensile tongue, the extremity of which is covered with a glutinous secretion so sticky that their prey, after having been touched, adheres to the tongue and can not get away. ”

“ Seven different kinds of pangolins are known, four of which live in Africa, and three in Asia. They all feed chiefly upon ants and termites, which they catch by breaking down the walls of their nests, and licking up the insects with their long, worm-like tongues as they run about in confusion. ”

“ Pangolins are of small or moderate size, terrestrial and burrowing, and feed mainly on termites or white ants; some of the species being more or less arboreal. They can roll themselves up in a ball when in danger. Their peculiar elongated form, short limbs, long tapering tail, and scaly covering give them on a superficial inspection more the appearance of reptiles than of mammals. ”

“ Two families belong to the Old World, one in the Orient and another in South Africa, but all the other edentates are American. The Oriental one includes most of the "pangolins," or scaly anteaters, which are covered from head to foot in a coat of mail formed of overlapping horny plates, and can roll themselves into a ball that will defy any jaws not big enough to tear them to pieces ”

“ Even in the whalebone whales their germs are formed in the same manner and at the same period of life as in other mammals, and even become partially calcified, although they never rise above the gums, and completely disappear before birth. In the American anteaters and the pangolins among the Edentata no traces of teeth have been found at any age. ”

“ In walking the fore-claws are turned backwards and inwards, so that the weight of the animal rests on the back and outer surfaces, and the points are thus kept from becoming blunted. The skull is long, smooth and rounded, with imperfect zygomatic arches, no teeth of any sort, and, as in other ant-eating mammals, with the bony palate extending unusually far backwards towards the throat. ”

“ Seals and penguins capture these fish, as also, doubtless, the skuas and the petrels.
Coming to the larger mammals, one occasionally sees the long lithe sea leopard, formidably armed with ferocious teeth and doubtless containing a penguin or two and perhaps a young crab-eating seal. The killer whale (Orca gladiator) , unappeasably voracious, devouring or attempting to devour every smaller animal, is less common in the pack but numerous on the coasts. ”

“ They seldom come ashore except in the breeding season, and then they nestle together, three or four in one hole, which they dig in the downs as deep as those of rabbits, and the ground is so full of them, that one is liable almost at every step to sink into them up to the knees. They feed entirely on fish, yet their flesh has not that rank fishy taste which is so common in sea-fowl, but is extraordinarily well tasted. Penguin, the name of this bird, is not derived from the Latin pinguedo, fatness, as the Dutch author of this voyage would have it, and therefore spells the word pinguin. ”

“ The skill with which the smaller kinds catch fish is quite wonderful, but I do not know that it is more wonderful than that displayed by other diving-birds that live in the same way. The little puffin, for instance, that with its white breast and gaily-coloured beak and feet, may be called the penguin of our shores, flies in regularly from the sea to feed its young with quite a number of fish in its bill. ”

“ Thus the k’ra (Macacus cynomolgus) is believed to develop into a species of fish called sĕnunggang, and of the fish called kalul (kalui or kalue) , Sir W. E. Maxwell writes: “The ikan kalul (is believed) to be a monkey transformed. Some specially favoured observers have seen monkeys half through the process of metamorphosis—half-monkey and half-fish.”122 The species of monkey which is believed to turn into the ikan kalul is, as I was told in Selangor, the b’rok or “cocoa-nut monkey.” ”

“ But learn, O Maël, that I have had a revelation that as a reward for their deliverance, the Penguin people will pay to the knight Kraken an annual tribute of three hundred fowls, twelve sheep, two oxen, three pigs, one thousand eight hundred bushels of corn, and vegetables according to their season; and that, moreover, the children who will come out of the dragon’s belly will be given and committed to the said Kraken to serve him and obey him in all things. If the Penguin people fail to keep their engagements a new dragon will come upon the island more terrible than the first. ”

“ Surely the stray bits of jungle would crush each other to bits. A gray streak flew past Piang, and a frightened monkey, thinking to save itself from the other derelict, nearly landed on the babui. Paying no attention to either the boy or the babui, the monkey shrank against a log and hid its head, whining piteously. ”

“ From tree-ferns, nestling in the branches, tiny heads peeped out, and little feathered creatures chirruped a welcome. A civet-cat was lazily stroking its face with one paw. Something large and hairy stirred on a nest of dried grass, and sleepily a full-grown packda stretched himself and gazed at Piang. The python approached it, and a hairy paw was extended; his snakeship coiled up beside the ape, and the mina-bird flew to the ape’s shoulder. ”

“ Their whole system of life is abject in the extreme. Although provided with fires, their food is eaten raw; and a fish taken from the water will be swallowed upon the instant—almost before the life is gone out of it. Seal and penguin flesh are devoured in the same manner; and the blubber of the whale is also a raw repast. When one of these is found dead upon the beach,—for they have neither the skill nor courage to capture the whale,—the lucky accident brings a season of rejoicing. ”

“ The manner in which some of the Monkey tribe capture shell-fish is remarkably indicative of their cunning and ingenuity. The oysters of the tropical climates, being larger than ours, the Monkeys, when they reach the sea-side, pick up stones, and thrust them between the opening shells, which being thus prevented from closing, the cunning animals eat the fish at their ease. In order to attract crabs, they put their tails before the holes in which they have taken refuge; and when the creatures have fastened on the lure, the Monkeys suddenly withdraw their tails, and thus drag their prey on shore. ”

“ The incessant clamor of their voices, harsh and shrill, overrode even the trampling of the surf.
Within the crowded little domain each tribe had its territory. The puffins—or “sea-parrots,” as some of the sailor folk call them, because of their huge hooked beaks—occupied the sandy slope, where they had their nests in deep burrows for protection against the robber skuas and saddle-backs. The auks had a corner of the cliff-face, where along every ledge they sat straight up in prim, close array like so many dwarf penguins, each couple occupied with its precious solitary egg. ”

“ Had this beast been a sea-leopard, there would have been a stampede, and every bird have leapt from the water on to the sea-ice. On this evidence I formed the opinion that in all probability killer-whales do no harm to Adélie penguins; later I saw it confirmed, when a school of killers shaved close past several floes that were crowded with Adélies, and made not the least attempt to get at them, as they might so easily have done by upsetting the floes. ”

“ Lastly, came a mob of egrets, crab-eaters, and little herons, which perched on the surrounding trees, stretched out their necks, rolled their wild eyes, and danced about on the dead branches, uttering their jealous cries, but not daring to interfere with the industrious pelicans.
The fishing over, the pelicans arranged themselves in a circle on the sand, when those who had been engaged in fishing proceeded to empty deliberately their pouches, spreading the contents before their grave old chief, each taking care to knock on the head any fish which was still living. ”

“ Standing on the borders of the waters where this shell-fish abounds, he keeps the end of his tail floating on the surface, which the crab seizes, and he then leaps forward with his prey, and destroys it in a very artful manner." [85] In South America, the art is given to two other very cunning creatures, the monkey and the jaguar. I have been informed by one of the English explorers in British Guiana, that it is a current story there, that the monkey catches fish by letting them take hold of the end of his tail. ”