352 A YEAR IN BRAZIL. 



apple, and I often felt inclined to taste it, but was informed it was 

 very bad to eat; however the ubiquitous and omnivorous pigs 

 devour it when fallen. It is the largest of the Solanacece that I 

 observed. Solanaceous trees are rare. 



The Guara is an animal of the campos ; it does not inhabit 

 the forests. Its usual haunt is those parts of the prairies where 

 numerous little bushes grow out of the grass ; and during the day 

 it shelters in the shrubs. Owing to its timid habits and avoidance 

 of human habitations, I can only suppose that it visited our camp 

 some two miles from the nearest village on the first night, 

 when we had all retired, in search of our chickens. On our 

 making a disturbance, it was so frightened that it never reappeared. 

 None of my men saw it, but heard its cry, and then, after a short 

 time, its footsteps round about the tent. 



EDENTATA. 



The edentates (or toothless) are the lowest order of mono- 

 delphous mammals. The class is represented by three groups, 

 which exist solely in South America the ant-eaters, armadillos, 

 and sloths ; while in the Old World the scaly ant-eaters (Manida) 

 of Asia and Africa, and the aardvark, complete the number of 

 existing families of this peculiar order. 



ANT-EATERS (Myrmecophagidcz). 



M. Liais states that " to this family the name edentate really 

 applies, owing to the total absence of teeth." 

 There are three species 



1. Mymecophagajubata, Linn. ; Tamanoir, Buffon ; Tamandua 

 bandeira. Tamandua is the Indian name for the genus ; bandeira 

 means " flag " or " standard " in Portuguese. This refers to its 

 tail. I have a very fine bushy tail of a specimen killed in the 

 valley of the Para. It is a yard long, and each hair is from ten 

 to twelve inches in length. 



2. M. tetradactyla, Linn. ; M. tamandua, of Desmarest ; 

 Tamandua, Buffon ; T. mirim, or small tamandua. 



3. M. didactyla, Linn. ; Fourmelier, Buffon. 



M. Liais gives a long and interesting account of the anatomy 



