AARD-VARK, OR ANT-BEAR 



The Ugly and Ungraceful Earth-Hog— Has a Long Prehensile Tongue — Found on the Roose- 

 velt Hunting Grounds in East Africa. 



During the rainy season the high and extraordinary large termite-hills 

 found on the East African velt are visited at night by a strange animal, which 

 spends its days underground. It is a grotesquely formed creature with the 

 snout of a pig, the head of an ant-bear, the ears of an ass, the legs of an arma- 

 dillo, and the body of a kangaroo — a kind of a composite animal such as the 

 imagination of fanciful artists, painters and writers may conceive. With its 

 long tail and sharp claws it beats and tears to pieces the ant-hills, and with 

 its long and sticky tongue it collects myriads of ants and swallows them. 



The earths, or burrows, which are often very deep and wide-spreading, 

 are a constant danger to hunters, as the Colonel and his companions more than 

 once had a chance to observe when riding over the velt or stalking, for they 

 often suddenly felt themselves sinking into the ground up to their waists, as 

 the openings were frequently concealed beneath bushes and difficult to avoid. 



When in South Africa among the Boers, I frequently shot those ugly and 

 ungainly animals the Boers call aard-varks, or, in English, earth-pigs. It 

 is not always easy to get a shot at one, for they are keen of hearing, and rush 

 to their burrows at the slightest unusual sound. When unable to reach their 

 burrows, they dig into the ground where they happen to be, and they are so 

 powerful that they can soon sink their large bodies out of sighi; even when 

 the ground is hard and sun-baked. 



The body of the aard-vark, which is usually almost naked, but sometimes 

 thinly clad with bristly hairs, is heavy and ungainly. The long muzzle of the 

 head is almost a trunk; the ears are of great length, and the tongue can be 

 extended like that of the pangolin, although it is not so' worm-like. The skin 

 is of remarkable thickness, its general color being yellowish brown, with a 

 tinge of red on the back and sides, while the head and under-parts are light 

 reddish yellow ; and the hind-quarters, the root of the tail, and the limbs brown. 

 A full-grown aard-vark measures a little over six feet in total length. 



The teeth of the aard-vark differ from those of any other known animal. 

 The Cape aard-vark inhabits South and South-Eastern Africa ; it is replaced 

 in North-Eastern Africa by the Ethiopian aard-vark; the former being dis- 

 tinguished by the thicker coating of hair, more especially on the back and 

 flanks, as well as by the thicker and shorter tail, and the longer head and ears. 



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