54 SOME TOOTHLESS MAMMALS 



powerful clawed feet which enable it to make its way 

 into an ant heap with remarkable celerity. The aard- 

 vark spends most of the time in its den, a commodious 

 room in which several adults may usually be found. The 

 rapidity with which it digs is almost beyond beUef. One 

 has been sighted on the plains by a hunter and, before it 

 could be caught, it disappeared in a burrow formed in hard 

 soil. When an attempt was made to dig it out, it easily 

 kept ahead of the human worker. 



Aard-varks are found over a wide spread of country. 

 They are considered valuable game by the natives and 

 many others, who claim that the diet of ants and the 

 resulting flavor of formic acid lends an additional value to 

 them in a gastronomic sense. I have seen nearly all these 

 animals alive, and recall a pungent, disagreeable odor that 

 would prejudice almost any one against them as a class. 



