ANT-BKAR. 



ANT-EATER. 



Wan and Expedition! to capture San*. In the nine way as the 

 bees and the wwpn of different hire* luauifent inveterate hcmtility 

 when they meet, ant* al*o of the same or of different species amail 

 one another when they meet during their foraging excursions. Besides 

 the individual skirmishes which thenoe occasionally arise, pitched 

 battles are sometimes fought between the whole or nearly the whole 

 force of populous adjacent colonies. We hare never ourselves witnessed 

 any very extensive* battles of this kind, such as Huber describes, in 

 which thousands of oombatanU were engaged, but we have seen as 

 many as 50 of the Wood-Ants fighting most pertinaciously within the 

 area of a few inches on what were supposed to be the boundaries of 

 their several territories. Their bite is so sharp, and the acrid acid 

 which they infuse is so deleterious, that many ore thus disabled or 

 killed outright, Huber witnessed on such occasions very extensive 

 carnage. 



Besides these skirmishes and battles which occur among all the 

 species, there are whole communities of warrior-ants, as was firat 

 discovered by Huber, whose history is so extraordinary as almost to 

 exceed belief. The details indeed have hitherto been credited chiefly, 

 if not solely, on the well-known veracity of Huber; but in the autumn 

 of 1832 we 'had an opportunity of verifying them both in the Black 

 Forest and in Switzerland, with respect to the species which he terms 

 the Amazon Ant (P. rufacent, Latreille), and on the Kluiie with 

 respect to the Sanguinary Ant 



Both of these species make war on the ants of a different species 

 from themselves, particularly the Dusky Ant ( /'. ftuca), not for the 

 purpose merely of gratifying a propensity to combat, but to make 

 slaves of the vanquished to do the drudgery of the conquerors at 

 home. The manner in which they proceed in this affair manifests, 

 so far as we can judge, deep design, such as might be ascribed to the 

 counsels of a cunning diplomatist. They do not capture the adult ants 

 and carry them into slavery, but make booty of the eggs and cocoons, 

 which, after the contest is decided and the warriors are always 

 conquerors are carried off to the Amazonian citadel, and being 

 hatched there, the poor slaves are most probably not aware but that 

 it is their native colony. Huber repeatedly witnessed such expeditions 

 for the purpose of capturing slaves; but though we were not so 

 fortunate, we witnessed, in a great number of instances, the slaves at 

 work for their warlike captors. 



The Amazons have not hitherto been found in Britain, and we 

 were unsuccessful in our attempt to bring over from the liliick Forest 

 a nest of live ones with their slaves which we had placed in a box for 

 the purpose. 



ANT-BEAR, the name commonly given to the Myrmecophagajulata 

 by the English at Demerara, [ANT-EATER.] 



ANT-EATER (Afyrmecopkaga, Linnteus), a genus of Edentata, dis- 

 tinguished by their total want of teeth and their hairy covering. The 

 latter circumstance separates them from the Pangolins (Manit), or Scaly 

 Ant-Eaters of Africa and Asia, which they resemble closely in other 

 respects, as well in their general anatomy as in their food and habits. 

 These two genera form a small but very distinct family of Cuvier's 

 order Edentata, differing from the common animals comprised in that 

 singular group, as well as from all other known mammalia, by their 

 entire deprivation of the organs of mastication, and acquiring an addi- 

 tional interest by the light which their osteological conformations throws 

 upon the structure and organisation of the Megatherium, Megalvnyjr, 

 and Mylodon, those extraordinary animals whuee fossil remains have 

 attracted so much of the attention, not only of the professed naturalist, 

 but likewise of the public at large. The osteology of the skulls and 

 trunks of these extinct animals present the closest analogies with that 

 of the corresponding parts in the Sloths ; so the whole construction 

 of their extremities appears to have been formed after the some model 

 as that of the corresjionding organs of the Ant-Eaters. The head of 

 these latter animals, indeed, is altogether different from that of the 

 Sloths : not only does it want the organs of mastication, of which they 

 are deficient only in the incisors, but the bones of the face, which in 

 them are short and round like those of apes and monkeys, are 

 prolonged in the Ant- Eaters, particularly in the Great Ant-Eater (M. 

 jubata), to double the length of the skull This singular conformation 

 arises from the form of the maxillary or jaw-bones, and those of the 

 nose, which form together a kind of long tube, very small in proportion 

 to its length, and almost cylindrical This prolongation of the muzzle 

 is not carried to so great an extent in cither of the other two known 

 species of Ant- Eaten ; but even there the construction here described 

 differs only in degree, and presents, on a more contracted scale, all 

 the characteristics of the My rmecophaga jubata, 



It is in the construction of the anterior extremities however that 

 these animals offer the greatest singularities, and become most 

 important in their relations to the fossil species. The phalanges or 

 joints of the toes, particularly the last, which bear the claws, are 

 formed in such a manner as to permit them to be bent inwards only, 

 as in the Sloths ; and for this purpose they are provided with very 

 powerful ligaments, which keep them, in a state of repose, bent in 

 along the sole of the foot, and never permit the hand to be completely 

 opened, but only half extended, as we sometimes see in gouty or 

 rheumatic people. The toes themselves are of very unequal size, and 

 even differ in number in dinVn-nt *)<<. Tin' <!ivnt .Ant l!car and 

 Tamandua have four on the anterior and five on the posterior 



extremities, whilst the smallest species, called, from that circumstance, 

 M. didartfta, has only two on the fore feet and four on the hind. Ti,.- 

 toes themselves, as in the Sloths, are united closely together as far aa 

 the claws, and are consequently incapable of any separate or individual 

 motion, lint the disadvantages arising from this circumstance are 

 more than counterbalanced by the increased strength which it 

 produces, and the consequent adaptation of the organ to the peculiar 

 purposes of these animals' economy. The claws are all large and 

 powerful, especially that of the middle too, of which the dimensions 

 are quite enormous. Nor do the Ant-Eaters, in walking, tread flatly 

 upon the sole of the foot like the generality of mammalia : on the 

 contrary, they rest entirely upon its outer edge, which in pr< 

 with a large callous pad for that purpose, whilst their toes being bent 

 inwards along the palms, the sharp points of tin it- powerful claws are 

 preserved from being injured by the friction of the hard ground. In 

 other respects the A nt- Enters are remarkable for their long cylindrical 

 tongues, covered with a glutinous saliva, by means of which they 

 entrap and devour the insect* upon which they live, and from which 

 they derive their names, both among naturalists and common 

 observers Myrmecophaga literally signifying Ant- Eater. This 

 tongue is protractile, and capable of being extended to a sur- 

 prising distance beyond the snout ; it is nearly twice the length 

 of the whole head and muzzle together, and when not ext 

 in kept doubled up in the mouth with the point directed back- 

 wards. The eyes are particularly small, the ears short and round, 

 the legs robust and amazingly powerful, but so unfavourably 

 formed for locomotion, that the pace of these animals is almost n - 

 as that of the sloths themselves, their greatest exertions not enabling 

 them to surpass the ordinary walk of a man. The tail is always long : 

 in the great species lax and thickly covered with very long flow in 

 in the other two, strongly prehensile, and naked underneath. These 

 species consequently climb trees and reside principally among tin ir 

 branches, feeding upon the wild bees and termites which inhabit thu 

 same situations. The Great Ant-Bear, on the contrary, never quit:-; 

 the surface of the earth, and confines its depredations entirely to the 

 numerous species of large ants which inhabit its native regions, and 

 furnish him at all times with an abundant and easily-procured nutri- 

 ment. The whole genus is confined to South America, and contains 

 three distinct and well-defined species. 



1. The Great Ant-Eater (M. jubata, Linn.), called Tamandua by tin' 

 Portuguese, and Ant-Bear by the English and Spaniards, is a large 

 animal which measures, when full grown, four feet and a half from 

 the extremity of the snout to the origin of the tail The tail itwlf 

 is 3 feet 3 inches in length, reckoning to the extremity of thu 

 hair, or measured only along the stump, 2 feet 4 inches ; the head, 

 134 inches from the snout to the base of the ear, and 104 inches to 

 the anterior angle of the eye ; its circumference immediately before 

 the eyes, where it is the thickest, is 14 inches, but from this part it 

 gradually diminishes to the end of the muzzle, where it measures 

 only ." 1 inches. The height of the animal at the shoulder is 3 

 feet 3 inches, and at the croup only 2 feet 10 inches, because, 



Great Ant-K.iter (M. jultata). 



perfectly plantigrade, it necessarily stands lower on the hind legs than 

 before, as may be observed in the common bear, the badger, ami ..t !,,-! 

 species which partake of thu plantigrade formation of the extremities. 

 The car is short and round, being an inch and a quarter brood at the 

 base, and only on inch in length ; the eye is remarkably small, deeply 

 lank in the head, and with a naked eyelid ; the head and snout, as 

 already observed, are prolonged to rcmnrkablc degree: they :m in 

 form almost cylindrical, and cud in n snml) truncated mu/./le. having 



