2IO NATURAL HISTORY ESSAYS 



the little creature. It reclined quite gracefully, lying 

 partly on one side ; the eye was closed, the mouth 

 was open : the beak was short, and the ear remarkably 

 prominent. A very young anteater (now preserved 

 in the Artis Museum) was examined in 1902 by the 

 writer; it measured about 25 inches from the tip of the 

 snout to that of the tail. The general body colour was 

 light grey. The mane was indicated by a scanty 

 line of grey hair which ran along the back to merge 

 in the upper edge of the tail, which entirely lacked 

 its sweeping plume. The remainder of the tail was 

 blackish. The insides of the limbs and the under 

 parts — doubtless faded in drying — were of a pale 

 brownish flesh-colour. The snout of the young 

 anteater, and especially of embryos, is relatively 

 shorter than in adults. A figure now before me of a 

 female embryo in the Jardin des Plantes Museum 

 exhibits perfectly the shortness of the muzzle due to 

 immaturity, while the absurd horse-like expression 

 above-mentioned is also clearly recognisable. An 

 interesting and very instructive series of anteaters of 

 various ages is preserved at Amsterdam, while 

 several valuable specimens are in the Liverpool 

 collection. As illustrating the great rarity of very 

 young examples, not only in zoological gardens, but 

 also in museums, it may be mentioned that as late as 

 1874 the embryo preserved at the Jardin des Plantes 

 was actually said to be "■unique sans doicte dans les 

 cabinets d' Europe.' 



