LONG-TAILED MANIS. 
LONG-TAILED MANIS. 
( Manis longicaudatus.) 
The American Ant-eaters are represented in India and Africa by the Pangolins, or Scaly 
Ant-eaters, which constitute the strange genus, Manis. The Long-tailed Manis inhabits West- 
ern Africa, and attains a large size, measuring two feet in the length of the body, and three 
feet in the length of the tail. They are covered with an armor of triangular, imbricated, 
long scales, overlapping each other like the tiles upon the roof of a house, — the natural pat- 
tern of the metal bucklers prevalent in the days of chivalry. This defence is not, however, 
entirely of a passive character, like the shell of the tortoise, but can be converted at will into 
a powerful weapon of offence. When pursued and unable to escape, the Manis rolls itself 
up into a ball like a hedge-hog (whence its Malay name of Pangolin ), wraps the tail over the 
head, and raises all the sharp-pointed scales in serried array. The head is small and conical ; 
mouth small ; tongue long and extensible ; eyes minute ; external ears wanting. The limbs 
are short and thick, and are armed with five claws ou each foot, — the three central. ones on 
each foot being of enormous size and arched. Its mode of progression, its food, and its man- 
ner of obtaining it, are the same as in the Ant-eater. The last joints of the toes are bifur- 
cated at the extremity, — a peculiarity found in no other Edentate. The tail contains forty- 
seven vertebrae. The animal dwells in holes which it burrows in the ground. 
