THE LIFE OF MAMMALS 
rocks of southern Europe. They feed wholly on ants and ter- 
mites, digging at night into the bases of their hills, and also 
making deep burrows for living quarters, where a single naked 
VUNG ye 
a 
AARD-VARK, OR CAPE ANT-EATER. 
and very feeble “earth pig” is born each spring. Though 
these animals are almost never seen, their burrows show that 
they have been numerous until recently throughout eastern 
Africa; now they are becoming scarce, because the natives 
hunt them incessantly for the sake of their hides. The aard- 
vark has an almost full set of teeth, but of a very unusual 
structure. 
_ There seems to be no real affinity between the aard-varks and 
the Amcrican edentates, and hardly any between them and the 
Pango- toothless pangolins or ‘‘scaly ant-eaters”’ of the family 
sia Manidez. The scales which give the latter quaint 
little animals their spruce-conelike armor are horny and over- 
lap, and between them grow hairs, but they are totally unlike 
the bony armature of the armadillo. At birth the scales are 
soft but quickly harden, and at full age are so thick and strong 
as to resist the tooth and nail of any enemy. A pangolin, when 
attacked, instantly draws in head, legs, and tail, and becomes a 
scaly ball which a leopard, for instance, might well roll about 
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