124 



VERTEBRATES. 



The Oreat Ant-eater. 



supposes that it has a sufficiency, it quickly withdraws the tongue, 

 and swallows them at once. This operation it repeats till it in 

 satisfied, or till the ants, grown more cautious, will be no longer 

 allured to their destruction. 



The Ant-eater inhabits Guiana, Brazil, and Paraguay. 

 As its name imports, it lives principally upon ants and termites, 



which it procures in • 

 precisely the same 

 manner as was re- 

 lated of the manis. 

 Its short legs and 

 long claws would 

 lead an observer to 

 suppose that its pace 

 was slow and constrained. When chased, however, it runs off 

 with a peculiar trot, and with such rapidity, that it keeps a horse 

 to its speed to overtake it. Schomburgh relates that a tame ant- 

 eater, in his possession, by no means restricted itself to ants, but 

 devoured meat, when minced, with much avidity. The same natu- 

 ralist also discovered a julus, or millipede, in the stomach of an 

 ant-eater which he dissected. The ordinary length of this animal 

 is about three feet seven inches, and its height is usually about 

 three feet. 



The Little Ant-eater also inhabits Guiana and Brazil. 

 The principal characteristics of this animal are the shortness of 

 its muzzle, and the prehensile power of its tail, which^ it twists 

 •j)und the branches on which it principally resides. It often 

 attacks the nests of wasps, pulling them to pieces with its clawB, 

 and devouring the grubs. The length of its body is ten inches. 



The Armadillo. — ^Under the general name of Armadillo 

 we may reckon several 'species, which seem to us really distinct ; 

 in all of them the animal is protected by a crust resembling bone ; 

 it covers the head, the neck, the back, the flanks, the buttocks, 

 and the tail to the very extremity. This crust- is covered out- 

 wardly by a thin skin, sleek and transparent : the only parts that 

 are not sheltered by this buckler, are the throat, the breast, and 



