ABILITIES OF THE ANT-EATER 
stumps and logs sheltering the ants which form its sole food. 
The instant their homes are wrecked, the insects rush out in 
swarms, whereupon the ant-eater throws out its very long, nar- 
row, ribbonlike and sticky tongue, —a living fly paper, — to 
which the insects are glued and then brought into the mouth. 
This operation is repeated with lightning-like rapidity until no 
more ants remain. The viscid saliva is contained in two bags 
(glands), which reach far back through the throat and over the 
chest, the orifices of which in the mouth are under muscular 
control. Asa result of this copious supply, the animal slobbers 
too much to be a pleasant object. 
“Tt seems almost incredible,” remarks Azara,’*! ‘that so robust and 
powerful an animal can procure sufficient subsistence from ants alone; 
but this circumstance has nothing strange init to those who are acquainted 
with the tropical parts of America, and who have seen the enormous mul- 
titudes of these insects, which swarm in all parts of the country to that 
degree that their hills often almost touch one another for miles together.”’ 
Notwithstanding its powerful digging tools, the ant-eater does 
not burrow, but “has a regular lair, or, at least, an habitual 
place of resort, generally situated among tall grass, where it 
spends the day in slumber, lying on one side, with its head 
buried in the long fur of the chest, the legs folded together, 
and the huge tail curled round the exposed side of the body.” 
As to the animal’s defensibility, much confusion of statement 
is met with in books. That it either can defend itself, or is 
well protected by some quality, is plain from the fact that it is 
widespread and fairly numerous; also that it produces but a 
single offspring annually, which remains with its mother for 
eighteen months or so, when young riding about on her back. 
The Indians and woodsmen have always insisted that although 
by careful management you could drive one right into camp, 
when it was aroused or assaulted it became a very dangerous 
customer, and was capable of killing even the jaguar by the 
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