188 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



Didactyla (Gr. &i6uK~v}iO, two-fingered), tltc Little Ant-cater. 



The LITTLE ANT-EATER also inhabits G-uiana and Brazil. 

 The principal characteristics of this animal are the shortness 

 of its muzzle, and the prehensile power of its tail, which it 

 twists round the branches on which it principally resides. It 

 often attacks the nests of wasps, pulling them to pieces with 

 its claws, and devouring the grubs. The length of its body is 

 ten inches. 



THE DUCK-BILLED PLATYPUS. 



Australia, where everything seems to be reversed, where 

 the thick end of a pear is next the stem, and the stone of a 

 cherry grows outside, is the residence of this most extraordinary 

 animal. When it was first introduced into Europe it was 

 fully believed to be the manufacture of some impostor, who 

 with much ingenuity had fixed the beak of a duck into the 

 head of some unknown animal. 



It lives by the banks of rivers, in which it burrows like the 

 water rat. It feeds upon water insects and shell-fish, always 

 rejecting the crushed shells after swallowing the inhabitant. 



