320 THE ODYSSEY OF AN ANIMAL COLLECTOR 
I let them out in a garden, where they played together like 
squirrels. 
The Tamandua with its long tapering head is quaint enough, 
but hardly surpasses the Giant Ant-eater, which is a most formida- 
ble creature, being over three feet in height. Its queer form gives 
the impression that it is a relic of a past age. This animal is ter- 
restrial and therefore has not the same modifications as the 
Tamandua, but is provided with massive claws which serve as 
defensive weapons as well as being highly effective for the pur- 
pose of digging up ants’ nests. As ants are probably its sole diet, it 
might seem strange that such a large creature can get sufficient 
to satisfy its hunger, but one has only to witness the masses of 
ants that swarm out of a broken nest in the soil to realize that 
the Giant Ant-eater with its long sticky tongue gets its living with 
the greatest of ease. 
The third species of ant-eater in British Guiana—the Pygmy— 
is one of the strangest mammals extant. It is only the size of a red 
squirrel and, unlike the other ant-eaters, is sluggish and sloth-like 
in its movements. It has beautiful thick golden-brown fur and 
will sit motionless with eyes closed and arms raised, with its pre- 
hensile tail wrapped round a branch. With this as an extra 
gripping device, it will often remain poised obliquely or even 
horizontally looking like a stuffed specimen fixed to a perch. 
One’s first reaction on seeing the Pygmy Ant-eater is of in- 
credulity. Is it alive or is someone pulling my leg? is a question 
which crosses the mind. Having gazed for some time at the harm- 
less-looking mummy-like creature before me, I was at last impelled 
to touch it to make certain that it was really alive. The reaction 
was like something mechanical. Without opening its eyes, the 
raised forearm struck, and the large pointed needle-like claw 
entered my flesh and was then clinched with a powerful lock grip. 
It was a most painful business getting it free as tremendous force 
was necessary before the animal would relax its grip. 
The Pygmy Ant-eater has only two claws on each forefoot, one 
being large and prominent and the other small and hardly dis- 
cernible. It lacks the long tubular muzzle of the other two species 
of South American ant-eaters—its head being much more rounded. 
The gape, too, is much wider, suggesting much less specialized 
