272 



MAMMALIA— ANT-EATER. 



fore feet are armed v^^ith four claws, the two middle ones are the longest; 

 those behind have five claws. The hair of his head and body is black and 

 white ; this animal turns his tail up on his back, and covers with it his 

 whole body, when he is inclined to sleep, or wants to shelter himself from 

 the rain or the heat of the sun. The long hair of his tail and of his body is 



not round in all its extent ; it is fiat towards the end, and feels like dry 

 grass. He waves his tail frequently and hastily when he is irritated, but it 

 hangs down when he is composed, and he sweeps the way with it as he 

 goes. The tamanoir walks slowly ; a man can easily overtake him in 

 running ; his feet seem less calculated to walk than to climb, and to fasten 

 round bodies ; and he holds so fast a branch or a stick, that it is not possible 

 to snatch either from him. The second of these animals is that which 

 the Americans call 



THE TAMANDUA.i 



He is much smaller than the tamanoir ; he is not above eighteen inches 

 from the extremities of the snout to the rump ; his head is five inches long, 

 his snout crooked, and underneath flat and long; he has a tail ten inches 

 long, without hair at the end ; his ears are erect, and about an inch in 

 length ; his tongue is round, eight inches long, and placed in a sort of 

 gutter or hollow canal within the lower jaw; his legs are not above four 

 inches in height, his feet are of the same form, and have the same number 

 of claws as the tamanoir. He climbs up and holds fast a branch, or a stick, 

 like the tamanoir, and his march is equally slow. He does not cover him- 

 self with his tail, which cannot shelter him, being almost bare ; the hair of 

 the fore part is shorter than that of the tamanoir; when he sleeps he hides 

 his head under his neck and his fore legs. The third of these animals is 

 that which the naturalists of Guiana call 



Myrmecopliaga ti'idactyia, Lin. 



