AAKD-VARKS. 117 



to the gigantic creatures from the Pleistocene of South 

 America, to which the latter name has been api:>lied, all 

 of which are distinguished from the armadillos by the 

 armour of the body being welded into a single solid dome- 

 like shell. 



Passing on to the animals whose name comes second in 

 the title of this chapter, we have first of all to mention 

 that the designations by which these creatures are com- 

 monly knoTSTi exhibit that remarkable want of originality 

 in nomenclature which apjjears to bo characteristic of 

 Europeans when they arc brought for the first time into 

 contact with hitherto unknown animals. Thus, whereas 

 the Dutch Boers of South Africa applied to the creatures 

 in qiiestion the title of " aard-vark " (meaning "earth- 

 pig "), the English colonists of the Cape commonly speak 

 of them as the ant-bear. Now, if tliere is any one parti- 

 cular animal which the aard-vark (as we must perforce 

 term the creature) is unlike, it is a bear ; while its resem- 

 blance to a pig is only of the most distant kind. Still, 

 however, as in the case of the order to which it belongs, 

 we must be content to designate the animal by the name 

 by which it is most commonly known. 



In appearance, aard-varks, of which there are two species, 

 are decidedly ugly creatures, having thick ungainly bodies, 

 a long pointed snout, enormous erect ears, and a thick 

 cylindrical and tapiering tail, nearly as long as the body. 

 The skin is either almost naked, or thinly covered with 

 bristle-like hairs. The fore-feet have but five toes, which 

 are armed with broad and strong nails, as are the five 

 toes of the hind liinli. As we have already mentioned, 

 almost the only feature which the aard-vark has in com- 

 mon with the armadillos is the absence of front teeth, 

 and its cheek teeth are quite unlike the simple ones of the 

 latter, as, indeed, they are dissimilar to those of any other 

 mammals. In the first place, they are preceded by a 

 functionless series of milk-teeth (a feature found else- 

 where among edentates only in one species of armadillo), 

 while in the second p)lace the premolars are unlike thi' 

 molars. The latter are composed of a number of closely 

 packed denticules, each furnished with a central pulp 



