THE CAPE ANT-EATER. 171 



the teeth are unworn, this outer covering covers their top, but as it wears off the tubular appearance 

 is seen, and the ends of the tubes become exposed. The teeth have no fangs like those of such 

 orders of Mammalia as the Carnivora and Insectivora, and they increase in length by growth from 

 below, so that the wear above is continually compensated for. The second tooth resembles the first 

 in its minute construction, but appears like two cylinders fixed together, a longitudinal groove indi- 

 cating the junction, and this is the appearance presented by most of the others. The hindermost 

 teeth resemble the first molars. The dental 

 number varies according to age, and the pre- 

 sence or absence of the teeth which are not 

 pei'manent. The jaws, in which the teeth are 

 fixed, are long, and the lower one is low, but 

 there is an ascending back part, or ramus ; 

 consequently, the face is long and low. The 

 eye is placed far from the ear, and is small. 



Its bony case, or orbit, and its surrounding SKrLL OF THE CAPE ANT _ EATER . 



bones, are somewhat remarkable for an Eden- 

 tate, for there is a lachrymal bone, and the tear canal is open on the bony face. Moreover, 

 the malar bone is united to the ear bone by a complete arch, the zygoma, and the deficiency so 

 remarkable in some other Edentates is thus not observed. The pre -maxillary bones are also to be 

 seen, in front of the face. In this completeness of the bones of the face this animal is a true 

 mammal, but in the nature and extent of the ear bones, the Orycteropus has some resemblance to 

 reptiles and birds. 



The tongue is long, narrow, and flat, and can be protruded considerably beyond the mouth, but 

 not so far as those of the other insect-eating Edentata ; and in order to keep up a supply of thick mucus, 

 the glands under and at its side, or the sub-maxillary, are very large and active in their functions. 

 The stomach is moderately bulky and not simple, for the portion towards the right has very thick 

 muscular walls, and the rest is thin. The intestine has a blind gut, or caecum.* In fact, the stomach 

 and blind gut might belong to an animal which eats something more bulky and less nutritious than 

 Ants, and would be of use to the creature, did it eat vegetable matters. All these structures, the 

 simple teeth, the tear bones, the size of the ear bones, the Sloth-like teeth, with tubes, however, and 

 the peculiarities about the intestinal canal are, it must be remembered, associated with the life of 

 a purely insectivorous animal. Why has it not the kind of teeth of the Insectivora and their stomach? 

 and why should it combine high and low characters in its skull ? These are questions which, when 

 attempted to be answered, show that in the great philosophy of nature causes and effects are not 

 everything, and that the same definite methods of life may be followed by animals very differently 

 constituted. 



The claws of the Orycteropus and the limbs are admirably suited for its kind of life. There are 

 five claws on the hind limbs and four on the front, and they are long, slightly curved, flat, and 

 scooped out below. The burrowing is facilitated by the arrangement of the claws as regards length, 

 and they diminish in size from within outwards. There is a collar bone. The foot rests evenly 

 on the ground and not on its outside, and the body is supported either by the whole foot or by 

 the palm surface of the claws. The fore arm can be rotated more or less, and the pronator quadratus t 

 muscle enables this necessary action to be carried out. The Orycteropus capensis lives over a wide 

 extent of country in South Africa, in Caffraria, and in the western districts. A closely-allied species 

 lives in Senegal (Orycteropus senegalensis, Less.) ; and a third is found in Southern Nubia, near the 

 White Nile (Orycteropus cetkiopicus, Sund.). 



* The uterus is double, and the placenta is disc-shaped, and is cast off (deciduate). There are chest and inguina' 

 teats. The vertebrae are seven cervical, thirteen dorsal, eight lumbar, six sacral, twenty-five caudal. 



t The muscle called pronator quadratus is a fleshy band, four-sided in shape more or less. One side is attached to one 

 of the bones of the fore-arm, the ulna in front above the wrist ; and the other and opposite side adheres to the radius. The 

 ulna being motionless, the muscle contracts and pulls the radius over, so as to turn the back of the wrist forwards, or 

 upwards. The prone position is thus produced, and hence the name of the muscle. The other muscle which produces this 

 movement is fixed to the fore-arm in front, near the inner elbow, and it is long, having a tendon which is implanted on the 

 radius. As this muscle contracts, it pulls the radius over the ulna, and makes the wrist take up a prone position. It is called 

 the pronator teres. 



