AARD-VARKS. 117 



to the gigantic creatures from the Pleistocene of South 

 America, to which the latter name has been applied, all 

 of which are distinguished from the armadillos by the 

 armour of the body being welded into a single solid dome- 

 like shell. 



Passing on to the animals whose name comes second in 

 the title of this chapter, we have first of all to mention 

 that the designations by which these creatures are com- 

 monly known exhibit that remarkable want of originality 

 in nomenclature which appears to be characteristic of 

 Europeans when they are brought for the first time into 

 contact with hitherto unknown animals. Thus, whereas 

 the Dutch Boers of South Africa applied to the creatures 

 in question the title of "aard-vark" (meaning "earth- 

 pig"), the English colonists of the Cape commonly speak 

 of them as the ant-bear. Now, if there is any one parti- 

 cular animal which the aard-vark (as we must perforce 

 term the creature) is unlike, it is a bear ; while its resem- 

 blance to a pig is only of the most distant kind. Still, 

 however, as in the ca.se of the order to which it belongs, 

 we must be content to designate the animal by the name 

 by which it is most commonly known. 



In appearance, aard-varks, of which there are two speoies, 

 are decidedly ugly creatures, having thick ungainly bodies, 

 a long pointed snout, enormous erect ears, and a thick 

 cylindrical and tapering tail, nearly as long as the body. 

 The skin is either almost naked, or thinly covered with 

 bristle-like hairs. The fore-feet have but five toes, which 

 are armed with broad and strong nails, as are the five 

 toes of the hind limb. As we have already mentioned, 

 almost the only feature which the aard-vark has in com- 

 mon with the' armadillos is the absence of front teeth, 

 and its cheek teeth are quite unlike the simple ones of the 

 latter, as, indeed, they are dissimilar to those of any other 

 mammals. In the first place, they are preceded by a 

 functionless series of milk-teeth (a feature found else- 

 where among edentates only in one species of armadillo), 

 while in the second place the premolars are unlike the 

 molars. The latter are composed of a number of closely 

 packed denticules, each furnished with a central pulp 



