178 CARIPI. Chap. V. 



The habits of the Myrmecophaga jubata are now 

 pretty well known. It is not uncommon in the drier 

 forests of the Amazons valley, but is not found, I believe, 

 in the Ygapo, or flooded lands. The Brazilians call the 

 species the Tamandua bandeira, or the Banner Ant- 

 eater, the term banner being applied in allusion to the 

 curious colouration of the animal, each side of the body 

 having a broad oblique stripe half-gray and half-black, 

 which gives it some resemblanoe to a heraldic banner. 

 It has an excessively long slender muzzle, and a worm- 

 like extensile tongue. Its jaws are destitute of teeth. 

 The claws are much elongated, and its gait is very 

 awkward. It lives on the ground, and feeds on termites, 

 or white ants, the long claws being employed to pull in 

 pieces the solid hillocks made by the insects, and the 

 long flexible tongue to lick them up from the crevices. 

 All the other species of this singular genus are arboreal. 

 I met with four species altogether. One was the Mp^me- 

 cophaga tetradactyla ; the two others, more curious and 

 less known, were very small kinds, called Tamandua-i. 

 Both are similar in size — ten inches in length, exclusive 

 of the tail — and in the number of the claws, having two 

 of unequal length to the anterior feet, and four to the 

 hind feet. One species is clothed with grayish-yellow 

 silky hair ; this is of rare occurrence. The other has a 

 fur of a dingy brown colour, without silky lustre. One 

 was brought to me alive at Caripi, having been caught 

 by an Indian clinging motionless inside a hollow tree. 

 I kept it in the house about twenty-four hours. It 

 had a moderately long snout, curved downwards, and 

 extremely small eyes. It remained nearly all the time 



