CARNIVORA. 411 



to such a degree that their hills almost touch one another for miles together. The 

 favourite resorts of the great ant-eaters are the low swampy savannahs along the banks 

 of rivers and stagnant waters. 



The Scaly Ant-eaters (JManis )* differ from the preceding by having 

 their body, limbs, and tail covered with thick scales, disposed like the tiles of 

 a house : these they raise, by rolling themselves up into a ball, to defend them- 

 selves against an enemy. 



The Cape Ant-eaters (Orycteropus) f have long been confounded with 

 the ant-eaters, because they live on the same kind of food, have the head 

 similarly formed, and the tongue long and extensible ; but they are distin- 

 guished by having cheek-teeth and flat nails. The structure of their teeth is 

 different from that of all other quadrupeds : they are cylindrical in shape, and 

 traversed with an infinite number of little canals, like the pores of a cane. 

 There is but one species, 



The Ground Hog ( Orycteropus Capensis} that inhabits burrows, which it digs with 

 great facility. 



ORDER CARNIYORA.J 



With the exception of the human race, and a few domestic 

 animals specially entrusted to the care of man, no animal is per- 

 mitted, in a state of nature, to arrive at old age that is, such old 

 age as permits decline and feebleness to usurp the place of strength 

 and vigour. Man only, indeed, is capable of such a privilege, in- 

 asmuch as he alone is possessed of that foresight and intelligence 

 which enables him, in the days of his youth and activity, to pro- 

 vide for the wants of his declining years or trust to his social 

 position for assistance and support. 



Wherever else we look throughout the broad creation, violent 

 death awaits alike all living things. Do the feebler animals be- 

 tray a lack of cunning or a want of speed ? The destroyer is at 

 hand ; the executioner is at the door. Does the tyrant fail in 

 strength or courage to pursue its prey ? The foe awaits it, and 

 its doom is fixed. No maudlin pity interferes with this dread 

 duty, so that decay, disease, decline, decrepitude, are not allowed 

 to sully Nature's works, except where man, permitted for a mo- 

 ment, interferes. The agents thus employed to destroy and live 

 upon the flesh of other animals are grouped together under the 

 general name of Carnivora or Flesh-eaters, and are the most 

 highly gifted and intelligent of the brute creation. 



Although the epithet carnivorous is strictly applicable to many 



* Probably from "manus," a hand, on account of the large fore claws, which are 



employed in tearing down the nests of the termites or white ants. 



f- opvKT-ris, oryctes, a digger; irovs, pous, afoot. 



% Caro, carnis, flesh; voro, to devour. 



