ANT-EATERS, SLOTHS, AND ARMADILLOS — Order, 
EDENTATA 
Ir follows naturally from the rise of the animal world, asa 
whole, by development from simply organized forms to those 
more complex and specialized, that as we descend from higher 
groups to lower, we shall find the latter of more and more ancient 
stock. We have now arrived at the Edentata, among the low- 
est of the eutherian orders, and we find not only that their 
beginnings are lost in the obscurity of a very remote past, but 
that those now living are mere enfeebled remnants of an order 
formerly of leading importance. It is not surprising, then, to 
find also that all the edentates inhabit South America, since 
that is the most ancient and unchanged of all the continents, 
save Australia. A few sorts of ant-eaters, sloths, and arma- 
dillos, — small, frightened, dull-witted creatures of no practi- 
cal account —are all that remain; but in the early periods of 
the Age of Mammals living species were reckoned by hun- 
dreds, and stood foremost in the animal world of their time. 
The great Brazilian ant-eater, tamandua assu or yurumi, 
is a shaggy animal about eighteen inches tall, grayish black, 
marked by a black-and-whité pointed stripe or 
“banner,” as the Brazilians say, reaching back 
from the throat to the hips. The total length may reach seven 
feet, but this is mainly head and tail. 
Ant-eater. 
This tail is the biggest thing of the kind in the mammal world, I guess, 
and has set many heads at thinking of what use it is. Wallace” says: 
“During rain it turns its long bushy tail up over its back and stands still; 
the Indians, when they meet with one, rustle the leaves and it thinks rain is 
falling, and, turning up its tail, they take the opportunity of killing it by a 
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