8548 Notices of New Books. 



forest region. The cigana lives in considerable flocks on the lower 

 trees and bushes bordering the lagoons, and feeds on various wild 

 fruits, especially the sour goyava [Psidium. sp.). The natives say 

 it devours the fruit of arborescent arums (Caladium arborescens), which 

 grow in crowded masses around the swampy banks of lagoons. Its 

 voice is a harsh grating hiss; it makes the noise when alarmed, all 

 the individuals sibilating as they fly heavily away from tree to tree, 

 when disturbed by passing canoes. It is polygamous, like other 

 members of the same order. It is never, however, by any chance 

 seen on the ground, and is nowhere domesticated. The flesh has an 

 unpleasant odour of musk, combined with wet hides — a smell called 

 by the Brazilians catinga; it is, therefore, uneatable. If it be as 

 unpalatable to carnivorous animals as it is to man, the immunity from 

 persecution which it would thereby enjoy would account for its existing 

 in such great numbers throughout the country."- — ( P. 119). 



It is a treat to receive any information about that little-known beast 

 the ant-eater. Mr. Bates made acquaintance with four species, of 

 which one only is terrestrial, the others arboreal. 



Ant-eater. — "The habits of the Myrmecophaga jubata are now 

 pretty well known. It is not uncommon in the drier forests of the 

 Amazons valley, but it is not found, I believe, in the Ygapo or flooded 

 lands. The Brazilians call the species the Tamandua bandeira, or the 

 banner ant-eater, the term 'banner' being applied in allusion to the 

 curious coloration of the animal, each side of the body having a broad 

 oblique stripe, half gray and half black, which gives it some resemblance 

 to a heraldic banner. It has an excessively long slender muzzle, and a 

 worm-like extensile tongue. Its jaws are destitute of teeth. The claws 

 are much elongated, and its gait is very awkward. It lives on the ground, 

 and feeds on Termites. or white ants, the long claws being employed to 

 pull in pieces the solid hillocks made by the insects, and the flexible 

 tongue to lick them up from the crevices. All the other species of 

 this singular genus are arboreal. I met with four species altogether. 

 One was the Myrmecophaga tetradactyla ; the two others, more curious 

 and less known, were very small kinds, called Tamandua-i. Both are 

 similar in size — ten inches in length, exclusive of the tail — and in the 

 number of the claws, having two of unequal length to the anterior feet, 

 and four to the hind feet. One species is clothed with grayish yellow 

 silky hair : this is of rare occurrence. The other has a fur of a dingy 

 brown colour, without silky lustre. One was brought to me alive atCaripi, 

 having been caught by an Indian clinging motionless inside a hollow 

 tree. 1 kept it in the house about twenty-four hours. It had a 



