THE AARD-VARK OR EARTH-HOG. 573 



the integument is reenforced by bony concretions, in others it is cov- 

 ered with imbricate scales, in others clothed with coarse hairs, and in 

 others still perfectly nude. From all this it results that naturalists are 

 greatly puzzled when they have to name the general characteristics of 

 the order. Nevertheless, it may be said that these mammals bear in 

 their skeleton and in the arrangement of their viscera certain signs of 

 inferiority ; that their salivary glands are highly developed, a fact ac- 

 counted for by their insectivorous diet ; and that in their circulatory 

 system they present some peculiar features, certain interlacings of the 

 blood-vessels which regulate the flow of the blood to the limbs, which 

 latter usually move with extreme slowness. Furthermore, it may be 

 added that, in Edentata with teeth, those organs have a peculiar aspect, 

 being for the most part void of enamel, and, to all appearance, consist- 

 ing of a number of cylinders standing side by side. 



In the animal world as at present constituted the Edentata are all 

 of medium or even small size ; but in former geological epochs they 

 attained very considerable dimensions, rivaling even the elephant. The 

 megatherium, whose bones have been found in Buenos Ayres, was 4^ 

 metres (14f feet) in length, and %^ metres (6;^ feet) in height ; and the 

 megalonyx and the mylodon, found in the same locality, were also of 

 gigantic proportions. And it is curioufe to observe that America, where 

 the remains of these great creatures are found, is still the continent 

 which possesses the greatest abundance of animals belonging to this 

 order. The Old World, on the other hand, possesses only a few spe- 

 cies, and Australia none at all, the part of the Edentata being in that 

 strange country played by the Monotremata, Echidna, and Ornitho- 

 rhynchi. 



Some species of the Edentata are well known to our readers. The 

 armadillo and the pangolin are common in our zoological gardens ; the 

 ant-eater and the sloth are to be seen there too, though far more rarely. 

 But besides these familiar species, there are others which, till recent 

 times, were all unknown in menageries, and of which but a very imper- 

 fect idea could be formed from the stuffed specimens in the public col- 

 lections. To this class belongs especially the orycteropus, or earth-hog, 

 a curious sort of Edentate from tropical Africa, which several travelers, 

 and among them Von Heuglin, had vainly tried to carry to Europe 

 alive. Two or three months ago, however, the Paris Museum of Nat- 

 ural History was so fortunate as to secure an animal of this genus. It 

 is quartered in the monkey-house, sheltered from the cold, and there, no 

 doubt, it will be able to live for some time to come in captivity. 



The traveler Kolbe, about the middle of the eighteenth century, was 

 the first to publish some notices of the orycteropus, already known even 

 at that time to the Dutch settlers under the name of aard-vark (earth- 

 hog) ; a little later Camper procured the skull of one of these animals, 

 and studied its osteological character ; but to iStienne GeofiFroy Saint- 

 Hilaire belongs the credit of having clearly pointed out the essential 



