470 



VERTEBRATA. 



THE CHLAMYPHOKUS. 



young beneath her scaiy carapace. Very little is known of its habits, but it has attracted great 

 attention by the peculiar form of its covering, which is about the consistence and thickness of sole- 

 leather, and differing in form from that of all other armadillos. The tail is also very peculiar : it is 

 a naked, jointed member, one inch and a half long, very strong, and flattened at the end, but is 

 bent down and carried under the belly. It is supposed to be used like a spade to remove earth 

 backward when the animal is digging its burrow. 



THE AARD-VAUK. 



THE OKYCTEROPIDES. 



Of this family there is a single genus and a single species, as far as known : this is the Aard- 

 Vark, or African Ant-Eater, 0. Capensis. It is about three and a half feet long, the tail one 

 foot nine inches. It has a long callous snout like a hog, a small mouth, and a slender tongue; 

 this being covered with a glutinous saliva, the animal licks up the ants on which it feeds. These 

 insects raise mounds of an elliptical figure to the height of three or four feet above the surface of 

 the ground, and so numerous are these gigantic ant-hills in some parts of Southern Africa, that 

 they are frequently seen extending over the plains as far as the eye can reach, and so close to- 

 gether that the traveler's wagon can with difficulty pass between them. They abound more es- 

 pecially in the Zeurevelden, or Sour Districts, so called from producing a kind of sour grass; arc 

 seldom found on the karroos or downs, and never in very dry or woody districts. By constant 



