ANT-BEAR 467 



than in any other race. The fore part of the skull is also much 

 expanded laterally. 



The most distinctive characteristic of the Damara race {albicaudus) 

 is the whiteness of the relatively short tail ; the general colour of the 

 body being deep brown, while the head is greyish brown with a tinge 

 of red. 



Lastly, we have an ant-bear from north-east Rhodesia in which the 

 basal length of the skull is the same as in the Cape race (8^ inches). 

 There appear, however, to be slight differences in the details of the 

 skull-structure, while the general colour of the hair on the body is 

 wood-brown, passing into black on the feet. The race may be named 

 O. a. luardi in honour of Mr. Rowland Ward, who presented the type 

 skull to the British Museum. 



Ant-bears are burrowing animals, with long extensile tongues, and 

 feed exclusively on white ants and ordinary ants. The following 

 notes on these animals in Abyssinia are given in Major Powell-Cotton's 

 well-known book on that country : — 



" The rains having commenced, it was easy to track them. They 

 do not seem to feed much at any one ant-hill ; one we followed had 

 visited several in a night, tearing off a large piece half-way up and 

 then moving on. They seem to prefer a sort of ant that lives in the 

 ground but throws up no hill, for we found numerous trenches where 

 this one had found and followed up an ant-tunnel. They will also dig 

 into old, deserted ant-hills, re-excavate and lengthen an old burrow, or 

 drive a hole into a bank, and in each case after a good deal of labour 

 work out again and move on. 



"' For their home-burrow they generally drive a sloping tunnel till 

 they reach a depth of four or five feet, and then dig along through the 

 soft earth or sand below the stratum to which the rains penetrate. In 

 this they can burrow far quicker than any number of well-equipped 

 men can follow them, who have to dig through the hard-baked layer of 

 soil under which the animals drive. A large number of men might 

 cut a circle round, but it would be a difficult and tedious task. I tried 

 digging one out, but as soon as we sank a cross trench ahead of the 

 beast, it turned off to one side. 



" Eventually, one evening I lay out near a hole one had entered 

 the night before. I missed it the first time it showed. Two others 

 came close to us during the night. They move very close to the 

 ground, until alarmed, when they raise themselves like a lizard. One 

 appeared to spring backwards four or five yards, and then stopped, 

 with its head raised towards us. The beast in the burrow showed 



