THE ANT-EATERS 171 



is generally esteemed as palatable food. Being in a state of 

 perpetual hunger, we found armadillo stew very much to 

 our taste. The Nine-Banded Armadillo has a total length, 

 from nose to end of tail, of about 26 inches, and in bulk is 

 about the size of our opossum. In captivity its food is milk, 

 boiled eggs and chopped meat, but in a wild state it feeds 

 upon a mixed diet of worms, ants, snails, beetles, small lizards, 

 grasshoppers and other insects. The young in a litter vary 

 from six to ten. 



THE FAMILY OF ANT-EATERS 



Myrmecophagidae 



The ant-eaters form another Family of Edentates, also 

 confined to South and Central America, and all its members 

 are absolutely toothless. The most celebrated member of 

 the group is the GREAT ANT-EATER. 1 Although it is very 

 unlike a bear, it is sometimes called the ANT-"BEAR"; and 

 when once seen it is never forgotten. The most peculiar 

 thing about it is the extraordinary length of its head, which 

 in front of the eyes is prolonged into a slender beak, with the 

 mouth and nostrils situated at its tip end. The opening of 

 the mouth is just large enough to admit the blunt end of a 

 lead pencil. 



The feature which comes next in oddity is the big, fleshy 

 tail, covered with an enormous brush of coarse, wavy hair. 

 The popular belief in South America that the Ant-Eater 

 sweeps up ants with its tail in order to devour them in a 

 wholesale way, is quite erroneous, for the tail serves a very 



1 Myr-me-coph'a-ga ju-ba'ta. 



