AARD-VAKKS. . 119 



cavity, and by their close approximation forming polygonal 

 prisms, so that a cross-section of one of these teeth 

 presents the appearance of a pavement. No dental struc- 

 ture among mammals is at all comparable to this, although 

 there is some approximation to it among certain fishes. 



Of the two living species of aard-vark, one is confined 

 to South Africa, while the other (represented in our figure) 

 inhabits part of Egypt and other districts in the north- 

 western portion of the same continent. A third species 

 occurs fossil in the Pliocene deposits of the Isle of Samos, 

 but with this exception the palseontological record is silent 

 as to the past history of these strange creatures, as to 

 whose origin and relationship to the other animals we are 

 at present utterly in the dark. Indeed, the aard-vark is 

 placed among the edentate mammals chiefly because 

 zoologists do not know where else to put it, and they take 

 that group as a kind of refuge for the destitute. Were it 

 not that the burdening of zoological science with new 

 names is from all points of view to be deprecated, there is, 

 indeed, much justification for regarding these animals as 

 the sole representatives of a distinct order ; but, although 

 in some ways such a new departure would be convenient, 

 I do not know that in others it would be of any great 

 advantage. But in including them provisionally among 

 the edentates we have to recollect that their affinities with 

 other members of that group not even excepting the 

 pangolins must be extremely remote. 



Aard-varks lead what would seem to us a very dull and 

 monotonous kind of life, passing the whole of the day 

 curled up in their deep burrows, which are generally ex- 

 cavated hard by the tall pyramidal hills made by the 

 termites, and only issuing forth at night to dig in the 

 mounds for their favourite insect-food. Not a great many 

 years ago it used to be said at the Cape that wherever a 

 clump of termite hills was to be seen there an aard-vark' s 

 burrow might be pretty confidently expected. Unfortu- 

 nately, however, this is no longer the case, and the aard- 

 vark of that district runs a good chance of being extermi- 

 nated at no very distant date. 



This deplorable result is being brought about by the 



