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LITTLE ANT-EATER. 
LITTLE ANT-EATER. 
(. Myrmecophciga didactyla .) 
This Edentate is found only in the forests of Guayana and Brazil. It is about 20 inches 
long ; and the body is covered with soft, curled, silky fur. The general color is a delicate 
golden straw, with a brownish mark on the back, often wanting. The head is short and 
tapering; ears close; eyes and mouth small; tongue long and vermiform. It has no teeth. 
On each fore-foot are two sharp claws, shaped like a hook, and laterally compressed. When 
folded down they lie upon a callous pad which lines .the palm. The hind feet have an oblique 
position, and are armed with four short, compressed claws. The tail has a strong prehensile 
power, and is covered with fur, excepting three inches of the under surface at the extremity. 
The animal has clavicles, and the ribs, which are greatly flattened, overlap each other, so that, 
on a side view of the skeleton, they appear to be formed of one solid piece of bone. It has 
many squirrel-like movements, using its fore-claws with great dexterity, and hooking the 
smaller insects out of the bark-crevices in which they have taken unavailing refuge. In 
defending itself, the animal strikes with both the fore-paws at once, and with considerable 
force. It is nocturnal, sleeping during the day with its tail securely twisted around its perch. 
The female is said to breed in the hollows of trees, producing only one young at a birth, 
which for some months rides about upon the back of its parent, holding on by coiling its tail 
around hers, as do some marsupials. 
