88 Field-Labourers 



that a very slight one, of the work done by nature's 

 various field-labourers ; but, slight as it is, it would be 

 incomplete without some mention of the very curious 

 animals known as ant-eaters, which are found through- 

 out the tropics. 



These creatures have very long, thin, pliable tongues, 

 looking like red earthworms, and as if they were en- 

 dowed with independent life ; and when they can get 

 at them they lick up the ants with marvellous rapidity. 



The ants, as we have seen, dwell, many of them, 

 within walls almost as hard and strong as if built of 

 stone or brick, capable, one wpuld think, of defying the 

 attack of almost any animal. But ant-eaters are armed 

 with tremendously powerful claws — so powerful that 

 with them they are able to dig and tear down even 

 these strong citadels; and this done, they sweep up 

 the terrified inhabitants by thousands. 



Ant-eaters of the Manis family,, long-tailed and short- 

 tailed, which are found in Africa and Asia, are covered 

 with horny plates, sharp-edged and overlapping, the 

 points turned to the tail and raised, so that they have 

 the combined advantages of scale-armour and the 

 hedgehog's bristles. 



The Aard-Vark, or Earth-hog, of South Africa, is a 

 very different-looking animal, covered with coarse, 

 bristly hair, and about five feet long with its tail — 

 altogether too large, one would have fancied, to be 

 satisfied with such very small food as ants. Its fore- 

 limbs are very powerful, and armed with long, hoof- 

 like claws, with which it digs through the hardest 

 mounds and burrows in the hard-baked earth faster 

 than a man can dig with a spade. 



The great Ant-eater, or Ant-bear of tropical South 



