48 Ant-Eaters. 



animal carried off the silk as a trophy of well- 

 earned victory over its enemy. Not only is it a 

 stupid and slow-moving animal, but it is also an 

 extremely sleepy one, and when preparing for sleep 

 it makes a very good though curious use of its 

 enormous tail, as it lies down on one side, rolls 

 itself into as small a compass as possible, and turns 

 the tail over its body so as to completely cover it. 



The Cape ant-bear or Aard-vark (Orycteropus 

 capensis) being, as we have said, nocturnal in its 

 habits, is by no means so well known to the general 

 public as is its neighbour, the great ant-eater; in 

 fact, but little more can generally be seen of it than 

 a piece of fat and pig-like back, as it spends its 

 day reposing in a hole which it has dug for itself 

 in the coarse sand with which it is plentifully sup- 

 plied ; but at feeding-time, in the morning, it is 

 out and about, and is then sufficiently lively. It is 

 a most extraordinary-looking creature, so curious 

 that, in our opinion, a sight of it alone well repays 

 an early visit to the Gardens. 



The name aard-vark, or earth-pig, given to these 

 ant-eaters by the early Dutch settlers at the Cape, 

 is a most happy one, as the creature is comically 

 pig-like in appearance, though it is perhaps rather 

 the pig of a nightmare than of real life that it 

 resembles. The body is long and low, covered 

 with coarse, bare-looking skin and bristles, and 

 rests on short thick limbs, with four toes on the 

 fore and five on the hind feet, which are modified 

 for digging, and therefore very unlike those of a 



