148 



Mtkmecophagid^.- 



-MAMMALIA- 



-Myrmecopiiagid/E. 



have supposed tliat its attenuated head and toothless 

 jaws would have been sufficient to have preserved it 

 from such a misplaced designation. And this leads us 

 to diverge a little from the inmiediate suhject of oiu' 

 description, and to remark how singidarly perverse are 

 colonists in all quarters of the globe on the subject of 

 animals. It is in vain that you shall protest that the 

 Great Ant-eater is not a " bear." It is in vain that 

 you shall explain the non-existence of sea-serpents, or 

 prove to demonstration that tigers, properly so called, 

 do not Kve in Africa 1 Your Dutch settler, and your 

 English explorer, ha-sdng met ivith a " spotted hysena," 

 or with a " serval," forthwith put it down for a fact that 

 tigers — yes, real tigers! — occur in Africa. Even this 

 very day, while we are writing — 24th September — a 

 member of the Livingston expedition records in the 

 Times an encomiter with a tiger; and thus, with the 

 ai)parent sanction of those who, we are assured, know 

 better, these false notions are propagated from age to 

 age. But we must return to our edentulous ant-eater. 

 This great species measures about four feet from Uie tip 

 of the snout to the root of the taO, which, if included, 

 would give us another thirty inches, or upwards of three 

 feet if the long hair at the extremity bo taken into 

 consideration. The head alone is about foiu-teen inches 

 long, being extremely narrowed towards the snout. 

 The eyes are particularly small, and protected by naked 

 lids. The fur is long, and more especially at the 

 anterior part of the back, over the region of the shoul- 

 ders. The tail is very bushy, the long harsh hairs 

 assumuig a bristly character. The general colour of the 

 fur is gi'cyisli-browT) ; but the under part of tlie chest 

 and throat is black, and from this part there proceeds 

 obliquely upwards on either side a dark band, wliicli, 

 as it passes over the shoulder, gradually diminishes 

 and becomes narrowed to a pomt over the region of 

 the loins. This black line is also rendered more con- 

 spicuous by paraUel bars of a whitish tint which embrace 

 it, so to speak, throughout its entire length. According 

 to D'Azara the Great Ant-eater generally invades low 

 swampy gi-ounds, and the banks ot rivers and stagnant 

 pools ; and although not able to climb, it is frequently 

 found in dense thickets. Its movements are slow, and 

 even when pursued it is easily overtaken by any person 

 on foot. Being very stupid it ofl'ers but a feeble resist- 

 ance, and consequently is easily taken or destroyed. 

 It passes the greater part of its existence in a state of 

 repose, sleeping with the head doubled up underneath 

 the hairy chest, whilst the thick tail is curved over the 

 body to protect it from the powerful rays of the siui. 

 These animals are nowhere very numerous, and conse- 

 quently have no difficulty in procuring sustenance from 

 the multitudes of ants' nests which abound m the warm 

 parts of South America. The female produces a 

 solitary cub, which she carries about on her back, even 

 after it has attained sufficient growth to shift for itself. 

 THE LITTLE ANT-EATER {Myrmccophaga didac- 

 tijla) is also kno^vn by tlio name of the two-toed 

 ant-eater, from the circumstance of the fore-feet being 

 didactylous. The hinder extremities are tetradacty- 

 lous. Tliis species is of very diminutive proportions ; 

 tlie entire body being less tlian fourteen inches in 

 length, and the tail appropriating more than half of 



this measurement. The fur has a pale fulvous coloiu' 

 generally ; but it is brownish on the back. The head 

 is much shorter than in the great ant-cater, the snout 

 terminating more abruptly. The skeleton e.xliibits 

 several peculiarities, but we have only space to men- 

 tion the remarkable breadth of the ribs. The Little 

 Ant-eater is a native of Brazil and the northern parts of 

 South America. Its habits are similar to those of its 

 more powerfid congeners. Von Sack, m his " Voyage 

 to Srainam," gives an hiteresting accomit of the tame 

 ones in his possession ; and after describmg their 

 characters, he tells us that the inliabitants of that 

 country aver, that when captined these animals wiU 

 not be induced to eat, and only lick theii' paws after 

 the fashion of a bear. " When I obtained the first," 

 says Von Sack, as quoted by Mr. Ogilby, " I sent to 

 the forest for a nest of ants, and during the interim I 

 put into its cage some eggs, honey, mUk, and meat ; 

 but it refused to touch any of them. At length the 

 ants' nest arrived ; but the animal did not pay the 

 slightest attention to it either. By the shape of its 

 fore-paws, which resemble nippers, and differ very 

 much from those of all the other species of ant-eaters, 

 I thought that this little creature might perhaps live 

 on the nympha; of wasps, &c. I tlierefore brought it a 

 wasps' nest, and then it pulled out with its nippers the 

 nymphse from the nest, and began to eat thera with 

 great eagerness, sitting in the posture of a squirrel. I 

 showed this phenomenon to many of die inhabitants, 

 who all assured me that it was the first time they had 

 ever kno\vn that species of animal to take any nourish ■ 

 ment. The ants with wliich I tried it were the large 

 termites upon which fowls are fed here." According 

 to Von Sack and most observers, the tail is employed 

 as a prehensile organ. It is, as we have seen, larger 

 than the body, very stout and broad at its origin, 

 thickly clothed with short hairs, and much attenuated 

 towards the extremity. GeneraUy speaking, die fur 

 displays a thick, soft, shming, woolly textm'e. The 

 female, it is said, produces a single yoimg one at a 

 birth, although it is furnished with four mammae. 



THE TAMANDUA {Myrmccophaga Tamandua) is, in 

 respect of size, intermediate between the two above- 

 described species ; the body measuring upwards of 

 two feet in length from tlie extremity of tlie snout 

 to the root of the tail, while tlie latter organ would 

 give us nearly eighteen uiclies more. The colour of 

 the fur is subject to considerable variation ; and to so 

 great an extent is this the case, that a number of well- 

 marked forms have been recognized, and by some tiie 

 more noticeable of them have been regarded as so 

 many distinct species. Most, if not all, display a dark 

 band on the fur, running diagonally over the shoulders 

 from below upwards. The woolly hairs are compara- 

 tively short, and tlie tail instead of being bushy at tlie 

 tip, as in tlie gi-eat ant eater, terminates in a narrow, 

 scaly, prehensile point. The feeding habits of the Ta- 

 mandua very closely resemble those of die last-named 

 animal ; but it infests the thickest forests of Brazil and 

 the neighboiu'ing disUicts, living almost exclusively 

 on the trees. It is particularly partial to honey, ami 

 proves terribly destructive to the wild and stingless bees 

 which form their nests among the highest branches. 



