ANT-EATER. 



131 



not their propagation and diffusion limited by the 

 active exertions of that part of the animal creation, 

 which continually subsist by their destruction. 



Ant- Catcher. 



" The ant-catchers run rapidly on the ground, alight- 

 ing but seldom on trees, and then on the lowest 

 branches; they generally associate in small flocks, 

 feed exclusively on insects, and most commonly fre- 

 quent the large ant-hills before mentioned. Several 

 diflereiit species of these birds are often observed to 

 live in perfect harmony on the same mound, which, 

 as it supplies an abundance of food for all, removes 

 one of the causes of discord which is most universally 

 operative throughout animated nature. On the same 

 principle, we might explain the comparative mildness 

 of herbivorous animals, as well as the ferocity and 

 solitary habits of carnivorous, and particularly of 

 rapaqious animals,which repulse all others from their 

 society, and forbid even their own kind to approach 

 the limits of their sanguinary domain. 



" The ant-catchers never soar high in the air, nor do 

 they extend their flight to any great distance, with- 

 out alighting to rest, in consequence of the shortness 

 of their wings and tail, which, in fact, seem to be 

 seldom employed for any other purpose than to 

 assist them in running along the ground, or in leap- 

 ing from branch to branch of bushes and low trees 

 an exercise in which they display remarkable acti- 

 vity. Some species, like the woodpeckers, climb on 

 the trunks of trees in pursuit of insects ; and it 

 would appear, from their restless habits and almost 

 constant motion, that their limited excursions are 

 entirely attributable to the want of more ample pro- 

 vision for flight. The ant-catchers are never found in 

 settled districts, where their favourite insects are 

 generally less abundant ; but they live in the dense 

 remote parts of forests, far from the abodes of man 

 and civilisation. They also dislike open and wet 

 countries. 



" The note of the ant-catchers is as various as the 

 species are different ; but it is always very remark 

 able and peculiar. Their flesh is oily and disagreeable 

 to the taste ; and, when the bird is opened, a very offen- 

 sive odour is diffused, from the remains of half-digested 

 ants and other insects contained in the stomach. 



" The plumage of the ant-catchers very probably 

 undergoes considerable changes in colour. The size 

 of the sexes is different, the female being much 

 larger than the male. Such variations may have in- 



duced naturalists to consider many as species that 

 really do not exist, as such, in nature. 



" The nest of these birds is hemispherical, varying 

 in magnitude, according to the size of the species, 

 composed of dried grass, rudely interwoven ; it is 

 fixed to small trees, or attached by each side to a 

 branch, at the distance of two or three feet from the 

 ground. The eggs are nearly round, and three or 

 four in number. 



" The discovery of any species of this genus in the 

 old world, is quite recent, and it had previously been 

 believed that the genus was peculiar to South Ame- 

 rica ; and though the existence of ant-destroying 

 birds was suspected in other tropical regions, they 

 were supposed to be generically distinct from those 

 of the corresponding parts of America, as was known 

 to be the fact in the case of the ant-eating quadrupeds. 

 This opinion was founded on the admitted axiom, 

 that nature always varies her groups in remote tro- 

 pical regions having no communication with each 

 other. The reverse, however, is the fact, in the case 

 of the ant-catching birds, as we find perfect analogies 

 between the species residing in those distant parts of 

 the globe, even throughout the different sections into 

 which the genus may be divided." 



The Asiatic species are in general more gay in 

 their plumage than the American oncs,buttheir habits 

 are nearly the same. They are not birds of the 

 cultivated and thickly-inhabited districts, but of the 

 wilds, and they are but seldom seen in proportion to 

 their numbers. None of them are birds of much 

 show or display, or in any way of popular interest ; 

 their peculiar place in the system of nature being the 

 only point of importance in their history. It is not 

 understood that any of them are migratory, though, 

 during the season when the heavy falls of rain con- 

 fine the ants to their hills and other burrows, they 

 must t in so far change their food, and pick up such 

 other insects as they find among the lower branches 

 of the trees. They are not met with in places which 

 are flooded during the rains, because such places are 

 not suited for the habitations of ants ; neither are 

 they so abundant in the deep and tangled forests as 

 in those where the trees are straggling and inter- 

 spersed with dry open patches. 



ANT-EATER (Myrmecophaga). A very sSngu* 

 lar genus of mammalia, belonging to Cuvier's order 

 of Edentata, or " toothless ; " and with the strictest 

 propriety so arranged, as not one of the genus has a 

 vestige of a tooth in either jaw. They are all natives 

 of the warmer parts of South America, and perform 

 nearly the same part in the economy of nature there 

 as is performed by the pangolius or scaley ant-caters 

 of the eastern world. They have been, by some 

 naturalists, confounded with the "ground pig" of the 

 colonists of southern Africa, Orycterojnts (earth-foot) 

 Capensi* ; but that animal is different both in structure 

 and in habits. It has grinding teeth, though of pecu- 

 liar structure, whereas the true ant-eaters have none. 



The connexion between the teeth and hair of 

 animals has often been noticed. The hairless dogs, 

 which are met with in some parts of the world, gene- 

 rally have the teeth deficient ; and though it has not 

 been established in the human subject, that, the falling 

 off of the hair is always accompanied by dental decay; 

 yet it. has often been tfoticed that a dry and unhealthy 

 state of the hair very generally accompanies disease 

 of the teeth. In the different orders of animals, 

 the correspondence is more remarkable; and the 

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