THE GREAT ANTEATER 20I 



sweeping, vertically-haired tail/ The fur on the fore- 

 lees is much elono-ated and directed backwards, so 

 that the animal looks as if its wrists had been thrust 

 through a pair of "leg of mutton" sleeves. The 

 weight of an adult anteater is about sixty-two 

 pounds. 



In spite of its extraordinary appearance, the 

 tamanoir is a fine handsome beast. Clad in a gar- 

 ment of grey mixed with black, its attire is smartened 

 by a snow-edged sable band which, roughly triangular 

 in shape, runs upwards and backwards across the 

 shoulder to end near the region of the loin — 

 hence the name of tamandua bandeira, or banner 

 anteater, applied to this species by the Brazilians.'- 

 The whitish fore-limbs are twice banded in glossy 

 jet. The under parts of the body are blackish 

 brown. In some specimens at any rate, the head is 

 purplish grey, owing to the skin showing through 

 the thin hair; similar instances are recorded amongst 

 very different animals, such as eland and kudu 

 antelopes, in which the hide of the body, denuded 

 through age, also exhibits a bluish cast. Newly- 

 born anteaters are greyer than the adults, and have 

 but a scanty tail. 



Occurring throughout tropical Central and South 



1 An anonymous essayist (? Eroderip) has well remarked in Honsehold 

 Words for 1853 that the brush of the f^reat anteater is "a peacock's tail 

 without the gaiety, made of yrey hairs instead of gaudy featliers." 



2 The triangular "banner" of the anteater will remind the student of 

 the three-sided pennon borne by knights bachelor in the Middle Ages. 

 The pointed end being cut ott' by the general in command, the pennon 

 became scjuare and the bachelor a lianneret. 



