17-2 



M A M M A L I A. 



situation where it is, taking possession of it, and turn- 

 ing it into nourishment. Hence it' we find that the 

 locomotive powers of the animal are slow arid imper- 

 fect, we invariably discover some other more fully 

 developed part of its organisation, which compensates 

 for its deficiency in this respect. The ant-eaters form 

 no exception to this. They are deficient in loco- 

 motive power, and they are destitute of teeth ; but 

 we find an ample compensation in the peculiar form 

 and enlarged processes of the bones of the fore-paw. 

 The scapular bone has prominent ridges upon it 

 which give it a firm embedment among the muscles ; 

 the articulation of the head of the humerus is very 

 free ; and there is hardly another of the mammalia in 

 which the processes on this bone are so well adapted 

 for the insertion of powerful muscles. The elbow 

 joint has also great power, and the projecting head 

 of the ulna affords a lever from which a very extra- 

 ordinary twisting motion can be given. The position 

 in which the head of the animal is shown may be 

 regarded as that of repose, or of the slow motion of 

 the animal. In this state the powerful claws are 

 folded down partially on the sole of the paw, and 

 seem quite helpless, and indeed useless for any ordi- 

 nary species of motion. If indeed we were to esti- 

 mate this animal as the standard of walking animals 

 which have to range over a great extent of surface 

 for subsistence, we should feel disposed to assign to 

 it that degree of deformity and imperfection which 

 some authors have assigned to the sloths. When, 

 however, we take the nature of its locality into con- 

 sideration, as well as its structure, we find that no 

 animal is more completely fitted for its place in nature. 

 Indeed if we take the trouble of observing how strong 

 and well made out in all their parts the bones of the 

 fore-arm are, it is impossible for us to suppose that 

 such a perfect instrument could have been formed 

 without an adequate purpose. One of the toes, the 

 middle one, and also the claw upon it, is much larger 

 than the others, which can be regarded as little else 

 than lateral supports to this most powerful one ; and 

 in some of the species, or at least in animals of analo- 

 gous habits, the number is reduced to three, or even 

 to two. This, however, allows of no inference against 

 the strength of the organ ; for nature, like an engineer 

 of the most consummate skill, concentrates her work 

 upon a single part, when she is to work to the utmost 

 of her strength. 



The lateral toes on each side are, as will be seen, 

 gradually shorter the one than the other, so that they 

 form excellent supports ; and the carpal bones are 

 almost as perfect as those of man himself. We can- 

 not call this instrument a hand, because it is not 

 adapted either for grasping with the fingers or for 

 clutching with the claws ; but notwithstanding this it 

 is not only a hand for the purposes of the animal, 

 but a hand ready armed with a tool by nature herself. 



When the animal reaches an ant-hill, or the colony 

 of any of those analogous insects upon which it feeds, 

 the paw is extended, and the toes and claws bent, so 

 that it advances like a hook ; and as, from the short- 

 ness of its legs and the length of its body, the animal 

 has a remarkably firm base upon the ground, the 

 hook of the paw" is drawn through the substance of 

 the ant-hill wilh much more force than a man could 

 draw a hoe wilh a single prong. The twisting mo- 

 tion of the elbow joint comes also into play ; and 

 altogether the breach which a single stroke makes in 

 the ant-hill is much greater in proportion than that 



which an ordinary breaching battery could produce 

 in a fort in the course of a day. The insects upon 

 which the ant-eater feeds build their habitations with 

 no small degree of labour ; and they are seldom 

 backward in defending them from aggression, or iu 

 making repairs where injury has been done. From 

 this disposition of theirs, they throng to the breach 

 made by the ant-eater iu myriads ; and the animal is 

 enabled to transfer them to its mouth in great num- 

 bers, and with a rapidity which is hardly equalled in 

 the feeding of any other animal. 



Claws used for such a purpose as this require to 

 have keen points, because the places which they 

 attack are often very much indurated in the surface. 

 The length of claw necessary to perform the opera- 

 tion of the animal properly, and also the position 

 which it has to assume in the performance of it, are 

 both incompatible with a retractile claw like those of 

 the cat family ; and yet the point has to be protected 

 from the injury to which it would be liable if its point 

 came to the ground in walking. Not only this, but 

 the claw is not in any animal a proper base to start 

 from in walking ; and accordingly those clawed 

 animals, which are the most decidedly digitigrade, 

 always spring and also receive themselves upon the 

 pads on the under parts of the feet, and never upon 

 the claws, or directly upon the bones to which the 

 claws are immediately attached. Whenever an ani- 

 mal springs from a hard point of rest, covering the 

 extremity of the foot, that point of rest is invariably 

 a hoof embracing the terminal bone or bones all 

 round, and never a claw. 



The flattened claws of the more characteristic bur- 

 rowing animals, which are necessarily worn in the 

 operation of digging, form no exception to this ; for 

 if the animal has the claws of moderate length and is 

 digitigrade, the walking is performed on pads ; and 

 when the claws are very long, the foot is plantigrade. 

 The length of claws, and the free motions of the 

 bones of the paw which are required in the case of 

 the ant-eater, are not compatible with even an ordi- 

 nary plantigrade motion ; and therefore the position 

 of these animals when only the leg is brought into 

 action, and not the paw, for its peculiar purpose, the 

 foot is turned on the side as represented in the sketch 

 above given. These ant-eaters are very peculiar 

 animals, but they are not more peculiar than the 

 localities which they naturally inhabit. These are 

 the close and marshy forests of South America, in 

 which insects swarm by myriads, and where, were it 

 not for such animals as these, the insects would 

 speedily get the better of every other tribe of animals, 

 and the forest would be changed to a desert. They 

 are necessary in these seasons, because the substance 

 which they consume would be equally destructive if 

 allowed to accumulate beyond a certain extent ; but 

 the law of nature controuls both, and sets regulations 

 over them which adapt with the greatest nicety their 

 numbers to the necessity there is for them. 



There are in the American continent the remains 

 of a race of animals of far more ample dimensions 

 than the ant-eaters, but still bearing some resemblance 

 to them in the structure of the teet. We have 

 already introduced a sketch of the foot of the mega- 

 therium, the most gigantic of these animals of which 

 we have any acquaintance ; but, to save reference, 

 we repeat it from a different specimen. 



It will at once be seen that, though we have no 

 personal knowledge of the habits of the owner of this 



