168 GREAT ANT-EATER. 
much above the foot : the tail is blacky extremely 
long and bushy : the hair on the Avhole body, but 
especially on the tail, is very harsh and coarse : 
there are four toes on the fore feet, and five on 
the hind ; the two middle claws of the fore feet 
are extremely large and strong; which render this 
creature, though destitute of teeth, a very for- 
midable adversary; since it has been known to 
destroy animals of much greater apparent strength 
than itself; fixing its claws upon them, and ex- 
erting such powerful strength as to kill them by 
continued laceration and pressure. It is a native 
of Brasil and Guiana : it is chiefly a nocturnal ani- 
mal, and is said to sleep during the greatest part 
of the day in retired places. Its pace is some- 
what slow, and its manners dull and heavy. It 
is said to swim with ease; at which time it flings 
its tail over its back. A living specimen was 
some years ago brought into Spain, and kept in 
the Royal Menagerie at Madrid : in this state of 
confinement it would readily eat raw meat cut 
small, and was said to swallow four or five pounds 
in a day. Its length was six feet, from the nose 
to the end of the tail, and its height was two 
feet. The specimen in the Leverian Museum is 
of superior size, and is commemorated by Mr. 
Pennant, in his History of Quadrupeds, as being 
the largest specimen he ever heard of. Its di- 
mensions, however, do not seem to exceed those 
of a skin preserved in the British Museum, and 
which once belonged to that of the Royal So- 
ciety. A beautiful figure of the Leverian speci- 
