264 TYPES OF ANIMAL LIFE 



extend over a plain as far as the eye can reach, and so 

 close together that a waggon may have a difficulty in 

 passing between them. From the action of the sun, 

 these nests become exceedingly hard on the surface. It 

 is in the neighbourhood of such nests that the aard-vark 

 makes a deep burrow, in which it sleeps during the day, 

 and it burrows with such extreme ease and celerity, 

 that it is said to be a hopeless task to try and dig the 

 animal out, while it is so strong that if caught it takes 

 two or three men to drag it out of its burrow. At night 

 it goes out to one of the nearest ants' nests, and scratches 

 a hole in the side of it big enough to admit its snout, 

 and then rests, quietly inserting its tongue again and again 

 into the aperture it has made, withdrawing it each time 

 covered with ants which have flown out to defend their 

 dwelling, and have been caught by the sticky saliva 

 with which its tongue is coated. It becomes very 

 fat, and its flesh is esteemed both wholesome and palat- 

 able, the hind quarters, cut into hams and dried, being 

 especially relished. It may seem strange that so bulky 

 an animal should get fat on such food. But termites 

 are practically infinite in number in the tropics, and may 

 attain a length of from one inch to one inch and a half. 

 Their bodies also are soft and unctuous, and are often 

 collected and eaten by the natives of Africa. The 

 traveller, Paterson, affirmed that only prejudice pre- 

 vented Europeans from making a similar use of them, 

 and declared that in his different journeys, he was often 

 under the necessity of eating them, and that he found 

 them far from disagreeable, while farmers collect them 

 by bushels, for the purpose of feeding poultry. 



It is difficult to detect any relation between such food 

 and even the external form of the teeth of the aard- 

 vark, and absolutely impossible so to explain their struc- 



