336 THE ANATOMY OF VEETEBRATED ANIMALS. 



maxillae are but loosely connected with it. The jugal arcli 

 is incomplete. In Myrmecophaga, tlie pterygoids, which are 

 very long, stretch back to behind the level of the tympanic 

 biillse, with the whole inner edges of which they are united 

 either by bone or by membrane ; and as, at the same time, 

 they unite in the middle line, the roof of the palate is greatly 

 prolonged, and the posterior nares are bounded below and 

 at the sides, by the pterygoid bones. This aiTangement 

 is to be foiind in no other Mammals, except some Cetacea, 

 nor in any other Vertebrata, except the Crocodiles. The 

 mandible is very slender, the ascending ramus, coronoid pro- 

 cess, and angle of the jaw, being obsolete. The articular 

 sui-face of the condyle is flat. The hyoid is placed far back 

 beneath the posterior cervical vertebrae, and is connected with 

 the skull only by muscles. The thyroid and the cricoid car- 

 tilages are ossified. The dorso-lumbar vertebrae are com- 

 plicated by the presence of accessory articular processes. 

 Well-developed clavicles are present in the climbing Cyclo- 

 tliurus didactylus, but they ai'e incomplete, or absent, in 

 the other species. In the manus, the oiater digit, or digits, 

 are devoid of claws, and the weight of the body, when 

 the animal walks, is supported upon its outer edge, which 

 is frequently thick and callous. The pes has five digits, 

 each provided with a strong nail, and the sole rests upon 

 the ground. 



The tongue is extraordinarily long and protractile ; it is 

 not connected to the hyoid by the ordinary hyo-glossus 

 miiscles ; but long miiscles, which are attached to the ster- 

 num (sternoglossi), retract it, while it is protracted by the 

 genio-glossi and stylo-hyoidei. 



Immense submaxillary glands extend back over the tho- 

 rax, and cover the tongue with a viscid secretion, when it is 

 thi-ust into the nests of the ants, upon which the Myrme- 

 cophaga preys. The insects, entangled by thousands in 

 this substitute for birdlime, are then di-agged back into the 

 mouth of the Ant-eater, and swallowed. The pyloric 

 portion of the stomach is so exceedingly thick and mus- 

 cular as to be comparable to a gizzard. The brain presents 



