fi ANT-EATER. 



Were we to iudge of the happiness of this animal from 

 our own sensations, we should be tempted to pronounce 

 h most unfortunate ; but it has probably enjoyments pecu^ 

 liar to itself. Its indolence may be bliss, and its deformity 

 is certainly a source of security. A single tree will fur- 

 nish it with subsistence for a fortnight ; and therefore it 

 has plenty without much labour in searching for it. At 

 the same time that it is very little delicate in the choice of 

 food, it is capable of supporting great abstinence; and 

 has been known to subsist forty days successively without 

 any nourishment whatever. As it would be impossible for 

 a creature of such imperfect conformation to find water, 

 nature has indulgently taken care that it shall experience 

 no inconvenience from the want of it. Thus, balancing 

 its advantages and disadvantages, though one of the most 

 unsightly of animals, it is perhaps not wholly miserable. 



ANT-EATER, OR ANT-BEAR. 



There are several species of this animal ; all of which 

 agree in having a small mouth, and a long cylindrical 

 tongue calculated to supply the want of teeth. They 

 prey on ants with destructive ingenuity ; and among the 

 many enemies with which this laborious race has to con- 

 tend, none are so formidable or so insidious. 



In reviewing this genus of animals, to which Buffon gives 

 the name of tamandua, it is observable that the snout 

 measures nearly a fourth part of the length of the body, 

 and is very little thicker at the extremity than between 

 the eyes. The tongue is generally doubled in the mouth, 

 and is the only instrument by which these creatures can 

 procure their subsistence. Unable to defend themselves 

 by strength or artifice against animals of superior force 

 and agility, they retire for security to the darkest forests, 

 or the most deserted mountains. They are principally 

 found in the New Continent ; where some of the most 

 helpless, the most deformed and monstrous productions 

 of nature, have been discovered. They conceal them- 



