126 



MAMMALIA. 



The Ant-eaters {Myrmecophaga, Lin.) — 



Are well covered with hair, have a long muzzle which terminates by a small toothless mouth, from 

 which is protruded a filiform tongue, susceptible of considerable elongation, and which they insinuate 

 into ant-hills and the nests of the Termites, whence these insects are withdrawn by heing entangled in 

 the viscid saliva that covers it. Their fore-nails, strong and trenchant, which vary in number according 

 to the species, enable them to tear open the nests of the Termites, and also furnish them with effective 

 means of defence. When at rest, these nails are always half-bent inwards, resembling a callosity of the 

 tarsus ; hence these animals can only bring the side of the foot to the ground. Their stomach is 

 simple, and muscular towards its outlet, their intestinal canal moderate, and without a ccecum.* 



The members of this genus are peculiar to the warm and temperate regions of South America, and 

 produce but one young at a birth, which is carried on the back. 



^ The Maned or Great Ant-eater (M. jubata, 



Auct), upwards of four feet in length, with 

 four anterior claws and five hind ones, and a 

 tail furnished with long hairs vertically directed, 

 both above and beneath. Its colour is greyish- 

 brown, with an oblique black band bordered with 

 white on each shoulder. It is the largest species 

 of Ant-eater; and stated [but erroneously] to de- 

 fend itself from the Jaguar. It inhabits low places, 

 never ascends trees, and moves slowly. 



The Tamandua (M. tamandua, Cuv. ; Myrm. 

 tetradaetyla and M. tridactyla, Lin.). — Figure 

 and feet of the preceding, but not half the 

 size ; the tail scantily furnished with hair, and 



*K J § 



Fig. 51. — Great Ant-eater. 



naked and prehensile at the tip, enabling the animal to suspend itself to the branches of trees. Some of them are 

 of a yellowish-grey, with an oblique band on the shoulder, that is only visible at a certain light ; others are fulvous 

 with a black band ; some fulvous, with the band, crupper, and belly black ; and others again black altogether. It 

 is not yet known whether these differences indicate species. 



The Two-toed Ant-eater (Myrm. didactyla, Lin.).— Size of a Rat, with fulvous woolly hair, and a russet line along 

 the back, the tail prehensile and naked at the tip, and only two claws anteriorly, one of them very large, and four 

 to the hind-foot. [Were it not for the interposition of the preceding species, it is doubtful whether the author 

 would have arranged this curious little animal in the same minimum group as M. jubata : it has been sepa- 

 rated by some naturalists ; and its close affinity with the Sloths is very obvious.] 



The Pangolins {Manis, Lin.), — 

 Are also without teeth, have an extensile tongue, and subsist on Ants and Termites in the manner of 

 the Tamanduas ; but their body, limbs, and tail, are covered with large trenchant imbricated scales, 

 which they elevate in rolling themselves into a ball, when they wish to defend themselves against an 

 enemy. All their feet have five toes. Their stomach is slightly divided in the middle part of it, and 

 they have no ccecum. They occur only in the ancient Continent. 



[Four or five species are now ascertained, inhabiting Asia and Africa, and varying from three to five feet in 

 length]. The Short-tailed Pangolin (J)/, pentadactyla, Lin.), is the Phattagen of iElian. An unguinal phalanx has 

 been found, in the Palatinate, of a Pangolin that must have been twenty feet long, or more. (See Cuv., Oss. foss. 

 vol. v. part 1, p. 193.) 



The third tribe of Edentata comprehends animals which M. Geoffroy designates 



MONOTREMATA, 



On account of their having but one external opening for all their excretions. Their genera- 

 tive organs present extraordinary anomalies : though without a ventral pouch, they have 

 nevertheless the same supernumerary bones to the pubis as the Marsupiata ; the vasa defe- 

 rentia terminate in the urethra, which opens into the cloaca ; the penis, when retracted, is 

 drawn into a sheath, which opens by an orifice near the termination of the cloaca. The only 

 matrix consists of two canals or trunks, each of which opens separately and by a double 

 orifice into the urethra, which is very large, and terminates in the cloaca. As yet naturalists 

 are not agreed as to the existence of their mammas f ; nor whether these animals are viviparous 



* Daubenton has described two small appendages in the M. di- I + M. Meckel considers as such two glandular masses which he 

 ducli/la, which, in strictness, may be considered as cceca. I have 1 found greatiy developed in a female Orjtithuryiichits. These M. Geof- 

 satisfied myself, however, that they do not exist iu .1/. tamandua. I froy deems to be rathe- glands, analogous to those on the flanks of the 



