THE LIFE OF MAMMALS 
blow on the head with a stick.” In contrast to this is the suggestion of 
Bigg-Wither,”’ who believes that the tail serves well to keep off annoying 
insects, especially bees, which, although stingless, are liable to settle in 
myriads upon any animal raiding their nests, — but we do not know that 
this animal ever robs these bees. The tail is, in fact, a useful mantle wrapped 
about the creature when it sleeps, warding off insects, hiding its colors 
from view, shedding rain, and keeping the temperature about the body 
equable. It is ordinarily trailed. 
The ant-eater’s long neck tapers into an equally long head, 
with very small eyes, ears, and nostrils; the skull, indeed, re- 
GREAT ANT-EATER, OR TAMANDUA. 
sembles that of a bird, and contains small room for brain. The 
hind feet are normally plantigrade and bearlike, but the fore 
feet are lifted upon the toes, and so bent in at the wrist that 
the weight rests upon the outside edge, with the great hook- 
like claws bent under. The animal never leaves the ground, 
and evidently no great activity is possible to it with such a 
club-footed deformity; its utmost efforts at speed are a shuffling 
run, easily overtaken by a boy. The purpose of the great fore 
paws (as of the precisely similar ones of the pangolin) is to en- 
able the animal to tear to pieces the earthen mounds or rotting 
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