44 Ant-Eaters. 



account for this, especially when we consider that 

 most people, after a few minutes' stay in the heated 

 atmosphere of " Sally's " house, are only too glad 

 to make their escape into the fresh air. Again, 

 ant-eaters can scarcely be described as frolicsome 

 or even lively animals. The aard-vark, indeed, 

 being nocturnal in its habits, spends the greater 

 part of its day sleeping peacefully in its bed of 

 sand, generally with its back turned to its visitors ; 

 while the great ant-eater, if not asleep under a 

 covering of straw, stalks slowly round and round 

 its cage with an appearance of most abject listless- 

 ness and want of interest in its surroundings. This 

 listlessness and want of interest is, no doubt to a 

 very considerable extent, caused by the fact that 

 visitors cannot feed it, stale buns and nuts having 

 no attractions whatever for an ant-eater. That it 

 does take a lively interest in matters which appeal 

 to its stomach will be admitted by anyone who has 

 seen it fed, or, better still, has seen its keeper give 

 it a dead mouse a very favourite bonne bouche. 

 And here we may remark upon the extraordinary 

 fact that a vast proportion of the visitors to the Zoo 

 are apparently convinced that nuts and stale buns 

 form the natural and favourite food of all "wild 

 beasts " in which term they include every living 

 creature to be found in a menagerie, from an 

 elephant to a tortoise, and, accordingly, never fail 

 to press those dainties upon the inmates of the 

 cages, often in defiance of notices requesting that 

 the animals may not be fed. A habit which leads, 



