THE MAGAZINE 



OF 



NATURAL HISTORY 



MAY, 1840. 



AiiT. f. — View of the Fauna of Brazil, antei'ior to the last Geologi- 

 cal Revolution. By Dr. Lund. 



( Continued from page 161 J 



In the order Edentata, there is a family which may be said 

 to form a connecting link between the burrowing and the 

 climbing mammals, and to which the Megalonyx has some 

 points of resemblance : I mean the ant-bears. Let us see 

 how far an examination of the construction of the hand, in 

 connection with their known habits, is calculated to throw 

 light on the subject before us. 



In the ant-bears [Myrmecophaga], the claws are curved and 

 laterally compressed, as in the sloths, and in both we find 

 these organs exhibiting the same kind of articulation ; but in 

 the two larger species they are much shorter, though still of 

 considerable strength. The hand is not very broad ; while the 

 number of claws is only four in the larger species, and is 

 even reduced to two in the smallest. It is clear that such a 

 construction is not well adapted for burrowing : and accord- 

 ingly I have satisfied myself that these animals never do 

 burrow at all. They use their claws to tear open the strongly- 

 built nest-hills of the Termites (white ants) ; but they are 

 not able to dig burrows under ground. In the two-fingered 

 ant-bear [M. didactyla) the provisions are exactly the same as 

 in the sloth ; accordingly, also, it lives only in trees, where it 

 subsists on the Termites that build there. Thus, if we com- 

 pare the Megalonyx with that family of animals to which it 

 indubitably bears the most resemblance, next to the sloth, 

 the comparison is equally unfavourable to the idea of its 



Vol. IV.— No. 41. n. s. 2 b 



