126 MAMMALIA. 



The Ant-eaters {MyrmecopJioga, Lin.) — • 

 Are well eovererl with hair, have a long ninzzle which terminates by a small toothless mouth, from 

 ■which is protruded a filiform tongue, susceptible of considerable elongation, and which they insinuate 

 into ant-hills and the nests of the Termites, whence these insects are withdrawn by being entangled in 

 the viscid sahva that covers it. Their fore-nails, strong and trenchant, which vary in number according 

 to the species, enable them to tear open the nests of the Termites, and also furnish them with effective 

 means of defence. When at rest, these nails are always half-bent inwards, resembling a callosity of the 

 tarsus; hence these animals can only bring the side of the foot to the ground. Their stomach is 

 simple, and muscular towards its outlet, their intestinal canal moderate, and without a cixcum.'*' 



The members of this genus are peculiar to the warm and temperate regions of South America, and 

 produce but one young at a birth, which is carried on the back. 



The Waned or Great Ant-eater {M. jubata, 



'Vnct.), upwards of four feet in lenj^th, with 



fmr anterior claws and live hind ones, and a 



= tail furnished with long hairs vertically directed, 



l^;- botli above and beneath. Its colour is greyish- 



-^ brown, with an nbhque black band bordered with 

 ■^■^hite on each shoulder. It is the largest species 

 f Ant-eater; and stated [but erroneously] to de- 

 t^'nd itself from the Jag-uar. It inhabits low places, 

 never ascends trees, and moves slowly. 

 ■^ ''^"^i;r"^jS-Z^X ^ '^^^^ Taniandua (M. tamandiia, Cuv. ; M-jrm. 



'^ '' ^fiV^"^^^^^^ '^ ^* . ^ '' Iraihtdijla and i)/. tridaciyla, Lin.),— Fig-ure 



11(1 feet of the preceding, but not half the 

 Fig. 5i--GrcatAut-eatLT. ^^j^e ; the tail scautily fumished with hair, and 



naked and prehensile at the tip, enabling the animal to suspend itself to the branches of trees. Some of them are 

 of a yellowish-grey, with an oblique band on the shoulder, that is only visible at a certain light ; others are fulvous 

 with a black baud ; some fulvous, with the band, crupper, and belly black; and others again black altogether. It 

 is not yet known whether these diflerences indicate species. 



The Two-toed Ant-eater {Myrm. didactyla, Lin.).— Size of a Rat, with fulvous woolly hair, and a russet line along- 

 the back, the tail prehensile and naked at the tip, and only two claws anteriorly, one of them very large, and four 

 to the hind-foot. [Were it not for the interposition of the preceding species, it is doubtful whether the author 

 would have arranged this curious httle aniu:ial in the same minimum group as M. jubata : it has been sepa- 

 rated by some naturalists ; and its close affinity with the Sloths is very obvious.] 



The Pangolins {Manis, Lin.), — 

 Are also without teeth, have an extensile tongue, and subsist on Ants and Termites in the manner of 

 the Tamaiiduas ; hut their body, limbs, and tail, are covered with large trenchant irnln-icated scales, 

 which they elevate in rolling themselves into a hall, when they wish to defend themselves against an 

 enemy. All their feet have five toes. Their stomacli is slightly divided in the middle part of it, and 

 they have no ccecurn. They occur only in the ancient Continent. 



[Four or five species are now ascertained, inhabiting Asia and Africa, and varying from three to five feet in 

 length]. The Short-tailed Pangolin (3/. pcntadacii/la, Lin.), is the Phattagen of jElian. An unguinal phalanx has 

 been fuund, in the Falatinate, of a Pangolin that must have been twenty feet long, or more. (See Cuv., 0^^-. foss. 

 vol. V. part 1, p. 193.) 



The third tribe of Edentata comprehcud.s animals which M. Geoffrey designates 



MOXOTREMATA, 



On account of their having but one external opening for all their excretions. Their genera- 

 tive organs present extraordinary anomalies : though without a ventral pouch, they have 

 nevertheless the same supernitmerary bones to the pubis as the Marsupiata j the vosa defe- 

 renfla terminate in the urethra, which opens into the cloaca; the penis, when retracted, is 

 drawn into a sheath, which o])ens by an oritice near the termination of the cloaca. The only 

 matrix consists of two canals or trunks, each of uhieh opens separately and by a double 

 orihee into the urethra, wdrich is very large, and terminates in the cloaca. As yet naturalists 

 are not agreed as to the existence of their mammffit; nor whether these animals are viviparous 



* D^iulicntnn Ikis described two araall Hpiiendages in tlie M. di- ! f M. Meckel considera as sucli two glandnlnr masses which ha 

 diirliilii, \vhiL>i, in striL'tiiiiss, may bi-i contiidcrcfl as cfvc:i. I linvy fnunr] ^,^^L■atly dcvelopeii in a fem;dc Oniilh<i-nnichus. ThcHC M. Gcnf- 

 smisfiud iiiy.'ii.-if, however, thru (hey du uot [;.\Ut iu M. Cuirnuidua. I Iroy dttiiis lo In; rathe- gLiniJs, all!llo^^o^lb to tliu^e oci the HiijikH ol tlie 



