^ Fauna : Mammals 



attacks of sharks or killer whales. The fishermen on the coast 

 of Liberia say that if a manatee crosses the bars of the rivers 

 from an estuary into the open sea, it is attacked and devoured 

 by sharks. 



No fresh-water dolphin or cetacean has as yet been dis- 

 covered in the Liberian streams such as may be met with in 

 the Cameroons River and the Congo, but it may likewise (if 

 it be found) prove to be another evidence of former connection 

 between Eastern South America and West Africa. 



The "Edentates" in this country are represented by three 

 species of the genus Mauis — scaly animals with long tails, which 

 are termed " ant-eaters " or " armadilloes " by the Americo- 

 Liberians. There are two Orders of mammals in Africa which 

 from want of any other indication of affinities are thought to 

 be distantly related to the edentates of South America, though 

 there is no evidence to show (at any rate at present) that these 

 two divisions — Pholidota and Tubulidentata — either have an 

 origin in common from one ancestral group, or that in like 

 manner they are genetically related to the Edentates (armadilloes, 

 sloths, and ant-eaters) ot South America. All three groups 

 are ancient and very primitive, with generalised or archaic 

 features in their anatomy, suggesting an affinity, here with 

 low ungulates, there with marsupials and insectivores. The 

 Orycteropus or earth pig (aard-vark) is a large long-snouted 

 beast of Southern, Eastern, and North-Eastern Africa, which 

 once existed in Greece, Asia Minor, and perhaps also in other 

 parts of the Mediterranean region. It has a long snout, long 

 ears, and a long powerful tail ; its body is hairy, with an in- 

 clination to baldness on the upper parts and on the tail. It has 

 large eyes, a long flexible tongue, and no Iront teeth, but trom 

 eight to ten pairs of molar and premolar teeth in both jaws 

 (eight pairs only in the lower jaw). But although it is stated 



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