1 88 



THE EDENTATES. 



than a mane. The general colour is very dark, 

 almost black ; a jet black horizontal stripe ex- 

 tends from the neck across the shoulders and 

 along the back, terminating in a point at the 

 hips. It is fringed by white hairs of consider- 

 able length, especially on the fore-legs. There 

 is further a white line on each side of the 

 brow parallel to the edge of the black stripe. 



By day the yurumi 

 roams about in the 

 steppes in search of ant- 

 hills, while by night, 

 since it makes no bur- 

 row, it creeps among the 

 bushes to sleep. Its 

 sense of smell is very 

 keen, but the other 

 senses are only slightly 

 developed. It some- 

 times defends itself by 

 embracing its antagon- 

 ist like a bear, and in- 

 flicting wounds with its 

 sharp claws. The great 

 ant-eater is now to be 

 seen pretty frequently 

 in zoological gardens; 

 it ultimately learns to 

 know the voice of its 



Fig. 245. The Little Ant-eater (Myrmidon didacty/ns). 



which is reddish-yellow on the back, and 

 more of a gray colour on the under parts. 



The little ant-eater is a nocturnal animal. 

 It climbs about on the trees like sloths, with 

 this difference, however, that it is aided in so 

 doing by its powerful tail, which it twines 

 round the branches. Like the sloths it sleeps 

 either clinging to a branch or crouching on 



its hind-legs. It is a 

 native of the primeval 

 forests on the banks of 

 the Amazon and the 

 Orinoco. I have re- 

 ceived a specimen from 

 the island of Trinidad, 

 but it was not certain 

 whether it had not been 

 brought over from the 

 mainland. 



The Pangolins or Scaly 

 Ant-eaters. 



keeper. An allied spe- 

 cies, the Tamandua ( Tamandua tetradactyla], 

 is a good climber, and has a prehensile tail 

 scaly at the end. 



The Little Ant-eater (Myrmidon (Cyclo- 

 thurus) didactylus), fig. 245, is a small crea- 

 ture, arboreal in its habits, measuring only 

 8 inches, and having a prehensile tail of 

 the same length. The moderately long head 

 is spherical in shape, and has a short but 

 pointed snout; the tongue is likewise rather 

 short, the whole body is thick and rather long. 

 The short but strong paws carry two large 

 sickle-shaped claws in front and four of the 

 same kind behind. The ribs are very broad 

 so as to overlap at the edges. The cylindrical 

 body is clothed with thick soft woolly hair, 



This group, forming 

 the genus Manis, are 

 ant-eaters which have 

 their body covered with 

 scales overlapping one 

 another like tiles on a 

 roof (imbricated scales). 

 And this is the chief 

 distinguishing character of these animals, for 

 as regards their bodily structure they entirely 

 resemble the true ant-eaters; their skeleton, 

 their toothless mouth, their worm-like tongue, 

 and their in-turned fore-paws are all exactly 

 like what we find in the latter animals. The 

 pangolins are natives of Africa and the East 

 Indies. The scales, which are formed of a 

 firm horny mass, are round or rhomboidal in 

 form at the free part, which, as in fishes, 

 covers the front portion of the next scale. 

 The markings on the surface of the scales 

 appear to indicate that these are composed of 

 fused horny fibres. They cover the whole of 

 the body and tail with the exception of the 

 abdominal surface and the inner sides of the 



