THE GREAT ANT-EATER 



(Myrmecophaga jubata) 



THE Ant-Bear, as this creature is sometimes called in its own country, 

 easily stands first among the curious beasts of the New World. It is a 

 truly typical member of the Edentata, having no teeth at all, and but a 

 very small mouth, the long jaws being bound up in the skin almost to 

 their ends. The tongue is very long and extensile, and looks much like 

 a big worm. The fore-paws are also extraordinary : there are five toes, 

 but these are very unequally developed, the middle one forming the main 

 part of the foot, and carrying a huge claw ; the other toes are all small, 

 and the fifth has no claw, but is covered at the tip with a hard skin for 

 on it, and on the backs of the next two toes, the beast rests on walking, 

 the tips of the toes being turned in, to keep the claws sharp for digging. 

 This is what gives the peculiar clubbed appearance to the fore-foot, so well 

 shown in the illustration. The hind-feet are much like those of a Bear, 

 with five ordinary-looking toes and claws, and the beast treads flat-footed 

 like that animal, behind, though walking on its knuckles before. 



In size this Ant-eater is far the largest of the living Edentates, being 

 about six feet from snout to tip of tail, with a height of a couple of 

 feet at the shoulder ; it is, in fact, as big as a small Bear, but narrow 

 and slab-sided in form. Its coat is coarse, but close, except on the 

 great bushy tail, which is laid over the animal as a blanket when it 

 goes to bed. Internally, the Ant-eater is remarkable for having the 

 hinder part of the stomach very strong and muscular, like the gizzard 

 of a bird, no doubt to facilitate the grinding of the food, which is 

 necessarily swallowed whole, there being no facilities for chewing it. 



The Great Ant-eater is a characteristic animal of tropical America, 

 but is not common ; its favourite haunts are on low moist ground, 

 either in forests or in the swampy plains. It is purely a ground animal, 

 and neither climbs nor burrows, nor can it travel fast ; a man can easily 



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