500 ANT-EATERS OF THE NEW AND THE OLD WORLD 



not only deprived of hair, but hard and callous, while, on the 

 contrary, the inner side of the bottom of the foot is soft and hairy. 

 The intellectual faculties of the ant-bear are said to be very 

 feeble, and in fact a large tongue seems much more necessary 

 to the creature than a large brain. His small cerebral develope- 

 ment is another reason, besides his want of teeth, for the small- 

 ness of his head, as the casket was naturally made to conform to 

 its diminutive contents. 



Besides the great ant-bear, there are two other species ot 

 American ant-eaters, one nearly the size of a fox, and the 

 smallest not much larger than a rat. Being provided with pre- 

 hensile tails, they are essentially arboreal, while the great ant- 

 bear, incapable of climbing, always remains on the ground, 

 where, thanks to the abundance of his prey, he is always sure of 

 obtaining a sufficient supply of food with very little trouble. 



The Manides, Pangolins, or scaly Ant-eaters of South Africa 

 and Asia, resemble the myrmecophagi of America in having a 

 very long extensile tongue, furnished with a glutinous mucus for 

 securing their insect food, and in being destitute of teeth, but 

 differ wholly from them in having the body, limbs, and tail 

 covered with a panoply of large imbricated scales, overlapping 

 each other like those of the lizard tribes, and also in being able 

 to roll themselves up when in danger, by which their trenchant 

 scales become erect, and present a formidable defensive armour, 

 so that even the tiger would vainly attempt to overcome the 

 Indian pangolin {Manis pentadactyla). 



The manides are inoffensive animals, living wholly on ants 

 and termites, and chiefly inhabit the most obscure parts of the 

 forest, burrowing in the ground to a great depth, for which 

 purpose, as also for extracting their food from ant-hills and 

 decaying wood, their feet are armed with powerful claws, which 

 they double up in walking, like the ant-bear of Brazil. 



Besides several species of manides, 

 Africa possesses a peculiar class of 

 ant-eaters in the Orycteropi, which 

 are found from the Cape to Sene- 

 gambia and Abyssinia, all over the 



Orycteropus Capcnsis. *= -^ xi. • r J 



sultry plams where tneir lood 

 abounds. Their legs are short, and provided with claws fit for 



