Ant-Eaters. 49 



pig ; the long snout,, with round nostrils pierced in 

 the end of it/ is, however, very pig-like; but the 

 mouth is small, and the end of the snout and 

 nostrils are thickly covered with light hair; the 

 ears are very long, erect, and pointed, and give a 

 comic expression to the face ; the tail, which is 

 stout and powerful, is very curious, being perhaps 

 best described as a tapering of the body to a point, 

 as it is extremely thick and cylindrical at the base, 

 but decreases gradually towards the end, which is 

 pointed. The tongue, unlike that of the great 

 ant-eater, is flat, and though it can be protruded to 

 a considerable extent, cannot reach anything like 

 the distance that that animal's does ; it is, however, 

 covered in the same way with a glutinous saliva, 

 which enables its owner to catch the ants on which 

 it lives, a feat which the animal performs much in 

 the same way as does the great ant-eater. The 

 aard-vark's teeth are of a highly peculiar and com- 

 plex structure, and it has many anatomical pecu- 

 liarities which, however, are not within the scope of 

 this article. It is a curious, retiring beast, digging 

 for itself great burrows in which it spends the day, 

 and from which, if half the tales we hear be true, it 

 is an extremely difficult matter to dislodge it, as it 

 digs with such rapidity that it seems literally to 

 sink into the ground, in addition to which, it is so 

 strong that, if it be caught, it is by no means easy 

 to drag it from its earth. The specimen at the 

 Zoo, though so lazy by day, seems active enough at 

 night, as it turns its sand in all directions, gene- 



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