Chap. I.] 
THE PENGOLDT. 
47 
after wandering over the house in search of ants, would 
attract attention to its wants by climbing up my knee, 
laying hold of my leg with its prehensile tail. The 
other, more than double that length, was caught in the 
jungle near Chilaw, and brought to me in Colombo. I 
had always understood that the pengolin was unable to 
climb trees ; but the one last mentioned frequently as- 
THE PENGOLIN. 
cended a tree in my garden, in search of ants ; and this 
it effected by means of its hooked feet, aided by an 
oblique grasp of 'the tail. The ants it seized by ex- 
tending its round and glutinous tongue along their 
tracks ; and in the stomach of one which was opened 
after death, I found a quantity of small stones and 
gravel, which had been taken to facilitate digestion. In 
both specimens in my possession the scales of the back 
