MAMMALIA— CHL AM YPHOR US. 277 



equal in number. Like the ant-eater, the pangolin is also toothless, and 

 has a long cylindrical tongue, which it uses in the same manner as that 

 animal to procure the insects on which it subsists. When the pangolin 

 approaches an ant hill, it lies down near it, concealing as much as possible 

 the place of its retreat, and stretching out its long tongue among the ants, 

 keeping it for some time immovable. These little creatures, allured by its 

 shining appearance, and the unctuous substance with which it is smeared, 

 instantly gather upon it in great numbers; and when the pangolin supposes 

 that it has a sufficiency, it quickly withdraws the tongue, and swallows 

 them at once. This operation it repeats till it is satisfied, or till the ants, 

 grown more cautious, will be no longer allured to their destruction. The 

 ant-eaters are found in America; the pangolin and the phatagin, in the East 

 Indies, and in Africa, where the negroes call them quogelo. They eat their 

 flesh, which they reckon a delicate, wholesome food; they also use their 

 scales for different purposes. Their mode of killing it is by beating it with 

 clubs. The pangolin and the phatagin have nothing forbidding but their 

 figure ; they are gentle, harmless, and innocent ; they feed upon insects 

 only ; they never run fast, and can only escape the pursuit of men by hiding 

 themselves in hollow rocks, or in holes which they dig for themselves; they 

 are two extraordinary species, not numerous, nor very useful; their odd 

 form seems to place them as an intermediate class betwixt the quadrupeds 

 and the reptiles. 



THE CHLAMYPHORUS 1 



Has been discovered only within the last five years. From the tip of the 

 nose to the root of the tail, it measures but five inches and a quarter ; its 



1 Chlaimjplwrus truncatus, Harlan. This animal, which is the only one of the genus, 

 has sixteen upper and as many lower teeth, all molars ; the two first in each jaw pointed, 

 the rest flat and cylindrical ; shell composed of a series of transverse plates ; toes five 

 before and behind, with compressed nails ; tail short, turned downward. 



