64 HOMES "WITHOUT HANDS. 



specimen, is perfectly flexible during life, enabling the limbs of 

 the animal to enjoy their full play, and even permitting the owner 

 to roll itself into a ball when it is threatened with danger. 



The different species of Manis deserve a passing notice. They 

 are all burrowers, and are furnished with armor even better cal- 

 culated for defense than that of the armadillo, inasmuch 'as it as- 

 sumes somewhat of an offensive as well as a defensive character. 

 All these animals are covered with large, sharp-edged scales, of 

 a stout horny consistence, which overlap each other like the tiles 

 of a house. They are of wonderful hardness, and form a buckler 

 which is impenetrable to any weapons possessed by the carnivo- 

 rous animals of the regions wherein it resides. A specimen of the 

 'Bajjeekeit, or Short-tailed Manis of India {Manis pentadac- 

 tyla), now before me, affords a good example of this weapcJn-resist- 

 ing power. Edwin Arnold, Esq., to whom I am indebted for this 

 specimen, possessed it in a living state for a considerable time, and 

 when he was about to leave India, determined to kill the animal 

 and take the skin with him. Accordingly, he fired three barrels 

 of a Colt's revolver pistol at the Manis, but without* the slightest 

 effect, and was at last obliged to introduce the point of a dagger 

 under the scales, and drive the weapon into the heart. On exam- 

 ining the interior of the skin, the wound caused by the double- 

 edged dagger is plainly perceptible, but I can not find the slight- 

 est trace of the bullets. One of the balls, indeed, recoiled upon 

 the intending destroyer. 



.When the Manis is alarmed, it rolls itself up, wraps its tail over 

 the body, and lies in conscious security, the horny scales acting as 

 a buckler, and their sharp edges deterring enemies from the attack 

 as much as the quills of the porcupine or the spines of the hedge- 

 hog. ■ 



The curious Aard Vaek of Southern Africa {Orycteropiis Oa- 

 pensis) is another of the earth-burrowers, residing, for the most 

 part, in great holes which it scoops in the ground. 



The name Aard Yark is Dutch, signifying Earth-hog, and is 

 given to the animal on account of its extraordinary powers of ex- 

 cavation and the swine-like contour of its head. The claws with 

 which this animal works are enormous, as, indeed, is needful for 

 the task which they are intended to perform. They are by no 

 means intended merely to excavate burrows in soft or sandy soil. 



