v 
272 MAMMALIA—ANT-EATER. 
fore feet are armed with four claws, the two middle ones are the longest, 
those behind Jiave 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 flat 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.! 
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 Tong, 
his snout crooked, and underneath flat and long; he has a tail ten inches 
long, without hair at the end; kis ears are erect, and about an inch in 
length; his tongue is round, eight mches long, and placed im 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 
———- 
1 Myrmecophaga tridactyla, Lx. 
