22 



Creatfurg 0f Natural ^t 



scouts having discovered the object of their 

 search, return to the nest and report their 

 success. Shortly afterwards the army of 

 Red Ants marches forth, headed by a van- 

 guard, consisting of only about eight or ten 

 Ants, which is perpetually being changed, 

 the individuals which constitute it, when 

 they have advanced a little before the main 

 body, halting, falling into the rear, and 

 being replaced by others. When they have 

 arrived near the Negro colony, they dis- 

 perse, wandering through the herbage, and 

 hunting about, as if aware that the object of 

 their search was near, though ignorant of its 

 exact position. At last they discover the 

 settlement, and the foremost of the invaders 

 rushing impetuously to the attack, are met, 

 grappled with, and frequently killed by the 

 negroes on guard : the alarm is quickly 

 communicated to the interior of the nest ; 

 the negroes sally forth by thousands, and 

 the Red Ants rushing to the rescue, a des- 

 perate conflict ensues, which, however, al- 

 ways terminates in the defeat of the negroes, 

 who retire to the innermost recesses of the 

 habitation. Now follows the scene of pil- 

 lage : the Red Ants with their powerful 

 mandibles tear open the sides of the negro 

 ant-hill, and rush into the heart of the 

 citadel. In a few minutes each of the in- 

 vaders emerges carrying in its mouth the 

 pupa of a worker negro, which it has ob- 

 tained in spite of the vigilance and valour 

 of its natural guardians. The Red Ants re- 

 turn in perfect order to their nest, bearing 

 with them their living burdens. On reach- 

 ing the nest the pupae appear to be treated 

 precisely as their own, and the workers when 

 they emerge perform the various duties of 

 the community with the greatest energy and 

 apparent good- will. [For an account of the 

 White Ants, which belong to a totally dif- 

 ferent order of insects, see TERMITES. See 

 also DRIVER ANTS.] 



The following short passage from Mr. 

 Darwin's Observations on the Natural His- 

 tory of Rio de Janeiro will give the reader a 

 good idea of the magnitude of the Ants' nests 

 there : " Travelling onwards, we passed 

 through tracts of pasturage, much injured 

 by the enormous conical Ants' nests, which 

 were nearly twelve feet high. They gave to 

 the plain exactly the appearance of the mud 

 volcanoes at Jorullo, as figured by Hum- 

 bpldt." And in Gardner's Travels in Bra- 

 zil we read the following remarks on the 

 immense multitudes of Ants which are found 

 there. " When near Rio de Janeiro," he says, 

 " we passed many habitations belonging to 

 poor people of colour, mostly fishermen. 

 Before reaching the foot of the mountain 

 over which the road leads to Tijuca, we 

 passed a migrating body of small Black 

 Ants. The immense number of individuals 

 composing it may be imagined from the 

 fact, that the column was more than six feet 

 broad, and extended in length to upwards 

 of thirty yards. The ground was completely 

 covered with the little creatures, so closely 

 were they packed together." The species 

 also are more numerous than naturalists are 

 aware of : he says that near Pernambuco 

 he noticed more than 25 different species. 



ANT-EATER. iMyrmeomhaaa.) A 



genus of animals, of the Cuiverian order 

 Edentata. Their distinguishing character- 

 istics are, that the body is covered with hair, 

 the mouth is small, and the tongue long and 

 cylindrical, calculated to supply the want 

 of teeth, from being covered with a glutinous 

 saliva, by means of which they entrap and 

 devour the insects upon which they live and 

 from which they derive their name. The 

 head is very long, but the tongue is much 

 longer, and capable of being extended to a 

 surprising distance beyond the snout ; the 

 eyes are particularly small, the ears short 

 and round, the legs thick and strong, but 

 most unfavourably formed for locomotion, 

 and consequently their pace is remarkably 

 slow. There are three distinct and well- 

 defined species in South America ; and 

 these, with one or two others, we shall briefly 

 describe. 



The GREAT ANT-EATER, or ANT- 

 BEAR (Myrmecophagajubata), is by far the 

 largest of the Ant-eaters, and is covered with 

 long, coarse, shaggy hair, except the head, 

 where it is short and close ; it has a very long 

 and slender head, and a bushy black tail of 



JUBATA.) 



enormous size and length, the whole animal 

 often measuring eight feet from the tip of I 

 the snout to the extremity of the tail. Being I 

 plantigrade, it stands lower on the hind legs 

 than before, which is the case with bears 

 and other quadrupeds similarly formed. It 

 has four toes on the fore-feet, the second and 

 third being provided with long, sharp- 

 pointed, and trenchant claws ; so that no- 

 thing upon which it has an opportunity of 

 fastening can escape. The hind feet have 

 five toes, furnished with short weak claws, 

 resembling those of ordinary quadrupeds. 

 The prevailing colour of this animal is a 

 deep grey, with a very broad band of black 

 running from the neck downwards on each 

 side of the body ; its habits are slothful and 

 solitary ; and it sleeps during the greater 

 part of the day. It lives exclusively on ants, 

 to procure which it opens their hills with its 

 powerful crooked claws, and draws its long 

 flexible tongue, which is covered with gluti- 

 nous saliva, lightly over the swarms of 

 insects who flock from all quarters to defend 

 their dwellings. It is a native of Brazil 

 and Guiana. It seems almost incredible 

 that so robust and powerful an animal can 

 procure sufficient sustenance from Ants 



