THE AtfT-EATBlt. 299 



Varieties. 



This creature is a very bad walker, and its pace 

 is so slow, that a man can easily overtake it : the 

 feet, however, are well calculated for climbing; 

 and it grasps the limbs of trees, or other round 

 bodies, with such violence, as to render it very 

 difficult to disengage it. 



The second of these animals, called by the na- 

 tives tamandua, is much smaller than the former, 

 being no more than eighteen inches from the 

 amout to the insertion of the tail: the head is 

 about five inches long, the ears erect, and about 

 an inch in length ; the tail ten inches, and naked 

 at the end: the tongue is round, eight inches 

 long, and lodged in a kind of hollow canal within 

 the lower jaw : the feet and claws are of the same 

 construction as those of the former; and the ani- 

 mal climbs, walks, and acts, exactly in the same 

 manner; its tail, however, is not capable of 

 sheltering it; it sleeps with its head under its 

 fore-legs. 



The third of this tribe which the French call 

 fourmillier, or ant-eater, is from the snout to the 

 tail about seven inches long, the head little more 

 than two inches, but thick in proportion to the 

 body; the eyes are situated but at a small dis*- 

 tance from the corners of the mouth ; the ears 

 small, and almost concealed by the hair, which 

 is smooth, shining, and curiously diversified with 

 red and yellow. The legs are about three inches 

 high ; the hind-feet are furnished with four claws, 

 whereas the fore ones have no more than two. 



