176 NATURAL HISTOMY, 



THE AMERICAN ANT-EATERS. 



The adjective '' long " may be applied to nearly all the structures of these animals. The tail, 

 body, neck, head, snout, and tongue, and the hair are all very long, and the only things which are 

 short are the ears. The observer is immediately struck with the curiously-shaped head, so narrow, 

 low, and ending in a flexible and very slender snout, especially if the round tongue happens to be 

 projecting out of the mouth, for it is longer even than the head, and is like a gigantic worm. The 

 snout appears bent, and is made to look all the longer, by the eye being placed not far from the 

 small ear. Then the huge bushy tail, flattened from side to side, as long as the body, has a fringe of 

 very long and strong hair. The body itself moves on four powerful limbs, well clawed, and looks 

 bulky from the quantity of hair on it, but usually it is thin. The animal, when it stands still, is higher 

 at the shoulders than behind, and it rests on the sides of the fore-feet, where there is a callous pad, 

 the claws being bent inwards and under, and not touching the ground with their tips. The under 

 part of the hind feet bears the weight of the hind limbs. It is about four feet and a half in length 

 from the snout to the tail, the tail being rather more than three feet in length, and the height is 

 about three feet and a half. So long is the head, that it measures thirteen inches and a half from the 

 ear to the snout, and the tongue can be projected for sixteen or eighteen inches, and is, when brought 

 back into the mouth, bent so that its tip looks backwards towards the throat. 



The animal belongs to a group of the Edentata (for it is toothless) which has the following 

 genera : One genus, which is now being considered, is Myrmecophaga^p^s (an Ant), and <aye<V (to 

 eat) a second is Tamandua, and the third is Cyclothurus, from KvKXwrfc (rounded). The animals of 

 this group represent in South America the Pangolins and Cape Ant-eaters of the Old "World. 



The species of the genus Myrmecophaga, which has been thus slightly alluded to, is called 

 the Maned Ant-eater. 



THE GREAT ANT-BEAR.* 



The habits of this animal, which has been named Great Ant-Bear by the English and Spaniards, 

 have been described as follows : " The habits of the Great Ant-Bear are slothful and solitary ; the 

 greater part of his life is consumed in sleeping, notwithstanding which he is never fat, and 

 rarely even in good condition. When about to sleep he lies on one side, conceals his long 

 snout in the fur of the breast, locks the hind and fore claws into one another, so as to cover 

 the head and belly, and turns his long, bushy tail over the whole body in such a manner as to 

 protect it from the too powerful rays of the sun. The female bears but a single young one at a 

 birth, which attaches itself to her back, and is carried about with her wherever she goes, rarely 

 quitting her, even for a year after it has acquired sufficient strength to walk and provide for 

 itself. This unprolific constitution, and the tardy growth of the young, account for the com- 

 parative rarity of these animals, which are said to be seldom seen, even in their native regions. 

 The female has only two mammae, situated on the breast, like those of Monkeys, Apes, and Bats. 

 In his natural state the Ant-Bear lives exclusively upon Ants, to procure which he opens their hills 

 with his powerful crooked claws, and at the moment that the insects, according to their nature, flock 

 from all quarters to defend their dwellings, draws over them his long, flexible tongue covered with 

 glutinous saliva, to which they consequently adhere ; and so quickly does he repeat this operation, 

 that we are assured he will thus exsert his tongue and draw it in again covered with insects twice in a 

 second. He never actually introduces it into the holes or breaches which he makes in the hills them- 

 selves, but only draws it lightly over the swarms of insects which will issue forth, alarmed by his 

 attack. ' It seems almost incredible,' says D'Azara, ' that so robust and powerful an animal can pro- 

 cure sufficient sustenance from Ants alone ; but this circumstance has nothing strange in it to those 

 who are acquainted with the tropical parts of America, and who have seen the enormous multitudes of 

 these insects, which swarm in all parts of the country to that degree that their hills often almost touch 

 one another for miles together.' The same author informs us that domestic Ant-Bears were 

 occasionally kept by different persons in Paraguay, and that they had even been sent alive to Spain, 

 being fed upon bread-and-milk mixed with morsels of flesh minced very small. Like all animals which 



* Myrmecophaga jubata. 



