218 



M. Tamandua. 



Head, shoulders, fore-limbs, outside of the hind-limbs, and middle 

 third of the tail white ; a stripe from each side of the neck over the 

 shoulder and remaining parts black ; tail but little longer than the 

 body, its terminal third scaly. Varies chiefly by the diminution of 

 the intensity of the black. 



I have foiuid that the Yellow Ant-eater, hitherto considered to be one 

 of the varieties of this species, differs remarkably in the length and size 

 of the tail ; the ears also appear to be larger, but this latter character 

 is less decisive, owing to the different degrees to which they may 

 shrink when dry. A specimen in the British Museum, and one in 

 that of this Society, resemble each other exactly, while a young pale 

 specimen of M. Tamandua has a tail proportionally of the same length 

 as the larger and darker individuals. Under these circumstances I 

 have been induced to propose a name for the Yellow Ant-eater, deem- 

 ing it probable that the species may be distinct. 



M. LONGICAUDATA. 



General colour uniform Ught ochraceous, a paler line runs down 

 the middle of the back ; tail nearly double the length of the body, 

 its terminal half covered with small scales and a few scattered black 

 hairs ; ears large, round, about one-third the length of the head. 



Although the flanks show a slightly darker reflection m certain di- 

 rections of the light, there is no trace of the mark which runs across 

 the shoulder. 



On referring to the figure, in Krusenstem's Voyage (tab. 6 e), 

 on which M. Desmarest founded his Myrmecophaga annulata, I find 

 it to be a very excellent representation of a Coati-mondi, probably 

 the brown species. The head is bent downwards, the tongue pro- 

 truded, and curved beneath the left fore-foot ; from under the further 

 side of the foot there comes a small twig of a tree, which, if it were 

 not branched, would look like a continuation of the tongue. But 

 the figure pubUshed in Griffith's translation of the ' Regne Animal' 

 is not so easy to interpret. The general form of the body is more 

 like that of an Ant-eater, though rather too long and slender ; the 

 tapering head and the dark stripe from the end of the muzzle to the 

 eye remind one of the Myrmecohius, which was not known until 

 several years afterwards ; the tail is just such as a Coati-mondi might 

 have supphed. The figure is said to have been drawn from a stuffed 

 specimen, but the authors do not state where the specimen existed, 

 and possibly may never have seen it. 



Cuvier asserts, with much probability, that the animal from which 

 Buffon took his figure of the Tamandua was made up of the skin of a 

 Coati-mondi, to which striped markings had been artificially applied. 



Cyclothurtjs, Gray. 



Fore-feet with two toes, the outer one much the larger ; "the pala- 

 tines only meet below for two-thirds of their length, and the bony 

 canal of the nares there terminates, the pterygoids not meeting, but 

 presenting only two long parallel and little prominent crests." 



