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ORDERS OF MAMMALS— THE DIGGERS 
Those plates, which were concave underneath 
and convex above, lay close down upon the skin 
and upon each other, and were arranged in rows 
or courses, perfectly imbricated (i.e., joint-break- 
ing) like the scales of a big fish, or a hawk’s-bill 
turtle. We presently discovered that they were 
fully controlled by the voluntary muscles of the 
skin. The tail was very broad, measuring 53- 
inches across where it joined the body, slightly 
hollowed underneath, and rounded on the top. 
It was a most useful appendage, and its special 
function was to protect the head. 
In walking, the Manis carried his back very 
highly arched in the middle. The long and 
powerful front claws were bent under the feet, 
until they pointed directly backward, and were 
literally walked upon. The heavy tail barely 
cleared the ground, and the nose was always 
carried low, as if slyly searching for something. 
Often the creature stood erect on its hind legs, 
like a kangaroo, especially when looking about 
for insect food, and as it walked its armor 
clanked like that of an ancient mail-clad knight. 
Whenever he found a colony of ants, he would 
begin to dig most industriously. After digging a 
short distance into an ant-hill, and exposing the 
interior, he would thrust his long and slender 
tongue into the passage-ways, and draw it out 
thickly covered with ants. 
To me, the most wonderful thing about the 
animal was its means of protection from its ene- 
mies, for it cannot truthfully be called defence. 
Without some very special provision of Nature, 
a slow-moving, toothless and hornless terrestrial 
animal would fare badly in jungles inhabited by 
leopards, tigers, wolves, jackals and wild swine. 
When I first endeavored to become acquainted 
with my Manis, he immediately tucked his head 
down between his four legs, brought his tail under 
his body and up over his head, held it there close- 
ly, and thus formed of himself a flattened ball 
completely covered with scale armor. When I 
undertook to uncoil him, I could not manage it 
alone, and called a servant to help me; but the 
tail clung to the body as tightly as if it had been 
riveted there. Then I called another man, and 
while I held the body, the other two pulled on 
the tail with all their strength, to uncoil it. But 
in vain. We wrestled with that small animal until 
we were fairly exhausted, and so great was the 
power of the tail that we gave up beaten. 
From the very first, I had no end of trouble 
with my scaly pet. I could not tie him, for on 
no part of his body or limbs would a rope hold 
ten minutes without hurting him. During the 
day, he was reasonably quiet, but at night he was 
very restless, and anxious to go out ant-hunting. 
For the first night, I shut him up in the main 
room of the Rest House; and in the morning I 
found him fully ready to break through a hole he 
had dug with his big front claws in the ten-inch 
wall of solid masonry. Well may naturalists 
assign the Pangolins to the independent Order 
of Diggers! 
The next night, I placed the Pangolin in a 
large tin box, well covered with boards. At 
three o’clock in the morning the village dogs 
raised such a row at the edge of the jungle that 
my servant went to them to investigate; and 
it was that animal. It had torn a hole in one 
corner of its tin prison, and escaped; and but for 
the very dogs that had so often annoyed me by 
trying to steal my specimens, it would have been 
lost to me forever. 
THE AARD-VARK FAMILY. 
This Family contains but one genus and two 
species, the Cape Aard-Vark , 1 of South Africa, 
and the Ethiopian Aard-Vark, of East Central 
Africa. 
With their usual facility in misnaming wild 
animals, the Boer pioneers in Cape Colony be- 
stowed upon the species found there the name 
Earth-“Pig,” and it has become a fixture. 
The Cape Aard-Vark is as much like a pig 
as it is like a jack-“ rabbit,” but no more. Cut 
off its extremely long and rabbit-like ears, cover 
it with imbricated scales to fit its body, and ex- 
ternally we will have a rather tall pangolin, about 
5 feet long. Unlike the pangolins, the jaws are 
provided with teeth. The tail is long, thick and 
heavy, and its special use is not quite apparent. 
In the usually wise economy of Nature, these 
insect-eating animals were developed in Africa 
for the special purpose of checking the ants of that 
region. Their powerful front claws enable them 
to dig with great success into the tall and also 
numerous ant-hills of Africa, and before the days 
of universal game destruction, the Aard-Vark 
was oftenest found where ant-hills were most 
numerous. 
1 O-ryc-ter'o-pus n’fer. 
