THE AARD VARK. 27 



a future page) are absolutely swarming with inmates ; and it is 

 for the purpose of feeding upon the tiny builders that the Aard 

 Vark plies its destructive labours. 



Towards evening the Aard Vark issues from the burrow 

 wherein it has lain asleep during the day, proceeds to the 

 plains, and searches for an ant-hill in full operation. With its 

 powerful claws it tears a hole in the side of the hill, breaking 

 up the stony walls with perfect ease, and scattering dismay 

 among the inmates. As the ants run hither and thither, in 

 consternation, their dwelling falling like a city shaken by an 

 earthquake, the author of all this misery flings its slimy tongue 

 among them, and sweeps them into ity mouth by hundreds. 

 Perhaps the ants have no conception of their great enemy as a 

 fellow-creature, but look upon the Aard Vark as we look upon 

 an earthquake, the plague, or any other disturbance of the 

 usual routine of nature. Be this as it may, the Aard Vark tears 

 to pieces many a goodly edifice, and depopulates many a swarm- 

 ing colony, leaving a mere shell of irregular stony wall in the 

 place of the complicated and marvellous structure which had 

 sheltered so vast a population. 



There are two large islands, one large enough to take rank 

 as a continent, which are pre-eminent for the strange character 

 of the creatures which inhabit them. Whenever an animal of 

 more than usual oddity is brought to England, we may safely 

 conjecture that it was taken either in Madagascar or Australia. 

 The creatures which we are now about to examine are natives 

 of the latter countr}'. 



Perhaps there never was a more extraordinary and unique 

 being than the well-known animal which is so familiar to us 

 under many titles. Some call it the Duckbill, on account of 

 its mandibles, which are ludicrously like those of the bird from 

 which it derives its name. Others call it the Water Mole, on 

 account of its aquatic habits and mole-like fur. 



Some scientific naturalists have called it the Oniithorhynchus 

 paradoxus) others have given it the name oi Platypus anati?ius 

 — the former title being to my mind by far the more appropriate 



