138 -THE MAMMALS OF ETHIOPIAN AFRICA 



from brown to grey. Inclusive of the tail, the length of the animal may be nearly 

 6 feet. The cheek-teeth, which are preceded by a milk series, are in the form of 

 flat-crowned columns, those in the hind part of the series being bilobed : internally 

 they have an altogether unique structure. 



Districts abounding in hillocks made by white ants are the favourite resorts 

 of ant-bears, which tear open the sides of these elevations and feed on their 

 inhabitants by licking them up on their long extensile tongues. They are adepts 

 in burrowing, and even in hard ground are able to dig holes large enough to 

 contain their bodies within a few minutes. Digging is accomplished by the four 

 large but blunt claws of the fore-feet; the earth being thrown out backwards 

 between the hind-legs. Nocturnal in their habits, ant-bears possess an acute sense 

 of hearing, and are very shy and timid, vanishing at the slightest noise into their 

 burrows, which serve as sleeping-places during the day. To dig out an ant-bear 

 is a task of no little difficulty, as the creature, in favourable ground, can often work 

 faster with its claws than can its would-be captors with pick and spade. 

 Doipninand The rivers and estuaries of Africa are not altogether without 



Manati. representatives of the two purely aquatic orders of mammals (Cetacea 

 and Sirenia), although there is no exclusively fluviatile genus corresponding to the 

 susu of the Ganges or the inia of the Amazon. The Bight of Biafra is, however, 

 the home of the Camerun dolphin (Sotalia teuszi), a member of a long-beaked 

 estuarine genus, which has been reported to differ from all other cetaceans by 

 subsisting on vegetable food, although the statement requires confirmation. 



In several of the West African rivers is to be found the African manati, or 

 sea-cow (Manatus senegalensis), a member of the order Sirenia. Although 

 sirenians present a certain superficial resemblance to whales and dolphins, they have 

 no sort of affinity with the Cetacea, being of totally different origin. Whales and 

 dolphins appear, indeed, to be derived from primitive land Carnivora, whereas the 

 affinities of the sea-cows are with the proboscidean, or elephant, group. Since the 

 extinct genera which appear to form a connecting link between an extinct group 

 of land Carnivora and the Cetacea are found in the Tertiary formations of the 

 Fayum district of Egypt, it seems probable that Africa was the birthplace of the 

 latter group, as well as of the Proboscidea and Hyracoidea. 



Sea-cows, unlike whales and dolphins, are never found in the open sea, but 

 frequent shallow estuaries and rivers, where they subsist entirely on vegetable 

 food. Of the two living generic types, the manatis are found in the rivers and 

 estuaries of both sides of the tropical Atlantic, whereas their cousins the dugongs 

 (Halicore) are restricted to the coasts of the Indian Ocean and the tropical Pacific. 

 The group was, however, not always restricted to tropical waters, as somewhat 

 more than a century ago a much larger species (Bhytina gigas), the sole 

 representative of its genus, abounded on the frozen shores of Bering Island, where 

 it was exterminated shortly after its discovery by shipwrecked sailors. The 

 African manati, which is peculiar in having but six vertebras in its neck, in place of 

 the normal seven, attains a length of about 8 feet. The rugged black hide 

 bears a few sparse hairs, which tend to disappear with advancing years, the tail is 

 broad and rounded, and the sides of the jaws are armed with a series of tuberculated 

 molar teeth, quite unlike those of the dugongs, which have, moreover, a pair of stout 



