THE EXHIBITION OP 1862. 
175 
here abound, but true deer there are none, the only African 
species known inhabiting the northern parts. But South 
Africa is the head-quarters of the antelopes, as Asia is of 
the deer ; the former have persistent horns, but the latter shed 
them periodically. 
Turn we now to the Western World. The courts appro- 
priated to our colonies in America and the West India islands 
contained many objects of the greatest interest. The tropical 
regions of British Guiana were represented by several strange 
mammalian forms, birds of strange shapes, and some charac- 
teristic vegetable productions. Among the former may be 
reckoned the Great Ant-eater {Myrmecopliagci jv.bata), one of 
the Edentate group before mentioned. In this animal we have 
an extraordinary prolongation of the muzzle, the bones of the 
face being double the length of the skull, and the organs of 
mastication being absent ; but they possess a long cylindrical 
tongue covered with a glutinous saliva, by means of which 
they secure insects, and draw them into their little mouth. 
This tongue is of extraordinary length, nearly twice as long 
as the whole head and muzzle put together, and when not 
protruded it is kept doubled up in the mouth with the end 
pointing backward ; 'with its powerful crooked claws it opens 
the great South American ant-hills, and although sluggish 
in its ordinary movements, it uses its tongue with such 
rapidity, that it is asserted that he will project it and with- 
draw it covered with insects twice in a second. The use of 
its immense bushy tail was apparent when we once had an 
opportunity of seeing this animal compose himself to rest. 
Lying down on one side, he planted his long snout amidst 
the thick fur of the belly, and then locking the fore and hind 
claws into each other, lie reflected his tail, so as to cover his 
whole body as with a blanket. Thus in his native savannahs 
he probably shelters himself from the too powerful rays of the 
tropical sun. 
Near this animal might be seen another, singularly differing 
from it in form, though closely allied to it in structure, also 
Edentate, the Sloth. Here we find the bones of the face short 
and round, giving the animal a physiognomy akin to that of 
the monkeys, and the organs of mastication deficient only in. 
incisor teeth. But they possess none of the advantages which 
monkeys have in the mobility and flexibility of the fingers, 
nor any thumb ; and though they are, like them, arboreal in 
habit, they hold by means of hooked claws, by which they 
usually hang with the back downwards. Few animals have 
been more maligned than the poor sloth, the account of whose 
habits, by Buffon, gives a vivid but incorrect statement of its 
pitiable lot. But, as Mr. Waterton observes, “he travels at a 
