MYRMECOPHA GID^E 



193 





fourth, a very minute one on the first, and none on the fifth, which 

 is entirely concealed within the skin. The hind foot has five 

 subequal claws. Vertebrae : C 7, D 17, L 2, S 5, C 37. There are 

 very rudimentary clavicles. 



The Tamandua (Fig. 65) is much smaller than the Great 

 Anteater, and differs essentially from it in its habits, being mainly 



FIG. 65. Tamandua Anteater (Tamandua tetradactyla). From Prof. Zool. Soc. 1871, pi. xliii. 



arboreal. It is an inhabitant of the dense primeval forests of 

 South and Central America. As different individuals vary much 

 in their coloration, it is possible that there may be more than one 

 species. The usual colour is yellowish-white, with a broad black 

 lateral band, covering nearly the whole of the side of the body. 



Cycloturus. 1 The skull is much shorter even than in Tamandua, 

 and is arched considerably in the longitudinal direction. It differs 

 from that of the other members of the family mainly in the long 

 canal for the posterior nares not being closed by bone below, as 

 the greater part of the palatines and the pterygoids do not meet in 

 the middle line. The mandible has a prominent, narrow, recurved 

 coronoid, and a well-developed angular process ; it is strongly de- 

 curved in front. Vertebrae: C 7, D 16, L 2, S 4, C 40. Ribs 

 remarkably broad and flat. Clavicles well developed. Manus 

 remarkably modified, the third digit being greatly developed at the 

 expense of all the others, and having a stout short metacarpal and 

 but two phalanges, of which the most distal is large, compressed, 

 pointed, and much curved, and bears a very strong hook-like claw. 

 The second digit has the same number of phalanges, and bears a 

 claw, but is very much more slender than the third. The fourth 

 is represented only by the metacarpal and one nailless phalanx, 

 the first and fifth only by very rudimentary metacarpals. The pes 



1 Gray, Annals of Philosophy, new series, vol. x. p. 343 (1825). 

 13 



