NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL PARK. 113 
GREAT ANT-EATER. 
points by bony armor, and remarkably well protected from 
the teeth of predatory animals. 
The Great Ant-Eater, (Myrinecophaga jubata).—This is a 
very remarkable animal, and usually is to be found alive in 
the Small-Mammal House. Its anatomical peculiarities are 
apparent at a glance. Its toothless jaws are enormously 
elongated, and taper to a rounded point, where the mouth 
opens as a narrow slit, scarcely large enough to admit the 
large end of a lead pencil. Its front claws are large and 
strong, for use in tearing open ant-hills and decayed logs; 
and the creature walks upon them as if club-footed. Its 
tail is long and thick,and bears a luxuriant brush, of coarse, 
wavy hair more than a foot long. The negroes of British 
Guiana gravely inform travellers that the Ant-Eater uses 
his bushy tail as a broom, with which he sweeps up ants in 
order to devour them wholesale. 
As may be inferred from the total absence of teeth, this 
strange creature lives chiefly upon crawling insects. In de- 
vouring the dreadful ants, which in a South American forest 
often make life a burden, it helps to preserve the balance 
of Nature. In captivity the food of this animal consists of 
milk, raw eggs and ground meat. In taking its food it 
thrusts out from four to eight inches of round, wormlike 
tongue, which contrary to many published pia semens ig 
not covered with sticky saliva. 
