CHAPTER II. 



THE AARD VARK AND ANT-EATERS. 



THE AARD VARK OF THE CAPE — THE GREAT ANT-EATER OR TAMANOIR — THE TAMANDUA— 



THE LITTLE ANT-EATER. 



T 



HE family Orycteropid^e consists of only one genus. The 

 animals belonging to it have the general form of an Ant-eater, 

 but the bristly skin and obtuse snout of a pig. 



GENUS ORYCTEROPUS. 



The Aard Vark, Orycteropus capensis, is the best known of the two 

 species. 



It is short-legged ; its claws are thick, sharp, and almost like hoofs. 

 Its skin is hard, and covered with scanty and rough hair ; its head, which 

 is very long and tapering, is terminated by a kind of snout. Its mouth 

 is furnished with molar teeth of a very peculiar structure. If a hori- 

 zontal section is made of one of these teeth, it presents the appearance 

 of a piece of cane. 



The Aard Vark measures rather more than three feet in length, not 

 including the tail, which is about a foot and a half long. Its height is 

 eighteen inches. It lives in burrows, which it hollows out with great 

 rapidity. When its head and fore-feet are buried in the ground, it main- 

 tains its position with so much obstinacy that the strongest man is unable 

 to draw it out. Its food consists of ants, or rather termites, insects 

 which are commonly designated by the name of white ants, on account 

 of their resemblance to very large specimens of the race. It is well 

 known that these termites live enclosed in a mound of earth in the form 

 of a dome. The Aard Vark, squatting down by the side of it, scratches 

 till an entrance is effected through the walls, and immediately legions 

 of the insects rush out to defend their habitation. Without losing a 



