EDENTATA. 

 Genus Man is, Linn. 



An ant-eater is generally distributed over India from Attock on the Indus 

 to the south-east as far as Kuttack, and throughout the whole of Southern and 

 Central India, and Ceylon. Another and distinct species ranges through the 

 Himalaya eastward through Assam into Western Yunnan, and in a slightly modified 

 form has been found by Swinhoe in the neighbourhood of Amoy and in the Islands 

 of Hainan and Formosa, this variety being known so long ago as Seba's and 

 Erxleben's time as the Eormosan Devil. A third and equally well-marked species 

 is spread over Arracan, Upper Burma, and the Malayan peninsula, and the larger 

 islands, such as those of Sumatra, Java, &c. I propose to point out briefly the 

 characters by which these three species are distinguished from each other. 



The Linnaean name M. pentadactyla^ was originally appHed to the Chinese form 

 indicated by Dalmann,- and also to Seba's^ representation of a Ceylon animal, hut 

 these ant-eaters have now been conclusively found to be distinct. The Indian and 

 Ceylon species is distinguished by its Hght yellow-brown colour in the adult state, 

 which is in marked contrast to the dark hue of its other two Asiatic aUies. Trom 

 these it is recognisable by its larger scales, which are less numerous, and more 

 coarsely sculptured. I restrict the term M. aurita to the species first indicated 

 by Dalmann, which appears to be specifically identical with the ant-eater of 

 the Himalaya, and the term M. javanica to the ant-eater which occurs in Tippera, 

 Arracan, Burma, the Malayan peninsula, and the neighbouring islands. The 

 number of longitudinal rows of scales on the hinder part of the trunk in the 

 Indian species varies from 11 to 13 in I£. pentadactyla, while in M. aurita, it 

 appears rarely to exceed 18 and seldom to fall short of 15, whereas the general 

 number is 17. In twenty-six skins of M. aurita, 18 rows of scales occurred only in 

 one, 16 in three, and 15 in another. In M. javanica the transverse longitudinal 

 rows of scales are as many as 19, so that M. pentadactyla is at once distinguished 

 from it and M. aurita by the smaller number of these scales. The Indian 

 ant-eater has also a fewer number of scales from the upper part of the nose to the 

 extremity of the tail, in the longitudinal mesial line, than either of the other two 

 species. The general number may be taken at 42, whereas in M. aurita it varies 



'Syst. Nat. 12tli ed. 



' Kongl. Svetens. Vetn. Acad. Handl. Stockh. p. 265, t. 6, fig. 3. 



3 Seba, vol. i. 1734, t. 53, fig. 5, p. 87. 



