Chap! I ] THE PENGOLIN. 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 



