148 MyrmecophagiDvB. MAMMALIA Mykmecophagid^. 
have supposed that its attenuated head and toothless 
jaws would have been sufficient to have preserved it 
from such a misplaced designation. And this leads us 
to diverge a little from the immediate subject of our 
description, and to remailr how singularly perverse are 
colonists in all quarters of the globe on the subject of 
animals. It is in vain that you shall protest that tire 
Great Ant-eater is not a “ bear.” It is in vain that 
you shall explain the non-existence of sea-serpents, or 
prove to demonstration that tigers, properly so called, 
do not live in Afilca ! Your Dutch settler, and your 
English explorer, having met with a “ spotted hyaena,” 
or with a “ serval,” forthwith put it down for a fact that 
tigers — -yes, real tigers! — occur in Africa. Even this 
very day, while we are writing — 24tli September — a 
member of the Livingston expedition records in the 
Times an encounter with a tiger; and thus, with the 
apparent sanction of those who, we are assured, know 
better, these false notions are propagated from age to 
age. But we must return to our edentulous ant-eater. 
This great species measiwes about four feet from the tip 
of the snout to the root of the tail, which, if included, 
would give us another thirty inches, or upwards of three 
feet if the long hair at the extremity be taken into 
consideration. The head alone is about fourteen inches 
long, beuig extremely narrowed towards the snout. 
The eyes are particularly small, and protected by naked 
lids. The fur is long, and more especiall}' at the 
anterior part of the back, over the region of the shoul- 
ders. The tail is very bushy, the long harsh hairs 
assuming a bristly character. The general colour of the 
fur is greyish-brown ; but the under part of the chest 
and throat is black, and from this part there proceeds 
obliquely upwards on either side a dark band, which, 
as it passes over the shoulder, ^-radually diminishes 
and becomes narrowed to a pomt over the region of 
the loins. This black line is also rendered more con- 
spicuous by parallel bars of a whitish tint which embrace 
it, so to speak, throughout its entire length. According 
to D’Azara the Great Ant-eater generally invades low 
swampy grounds, and the banks ot rivers and stagnant 
pools ; and although not able to climb, it is frequently 
found in dense thickets. Its movements are slow, and 
even when pursued it is easily overtaken by any person 
on foot. Being very stupid it offers but a feeble resist- 
ance, and consequently is easily taken or destroyed. 
It passes the greater part of its existence in a state of 
repose, sleeping with the head doubled up underneatli 
the hairy chest, whilst the thick tail is curved over the 
body to protect it from the powerful rays of the sun. 
These animals are nowhere very numerous, and conse- 
quently have no difficulty in procuring sustenance from 
the multitudes of ants’ nests which abound in the warm 
parts of South America. The female produces a 
solitary cub, which she carries about on her back, even 
after it has attained sufficient growth to shift for itself. 
THE LITTLE ANT-EATER [Myrmecophaga didac- 
tyla) is also known by the name of the two-toed 
ant-eater, from the circumstance of the fore-feet being 
didactylous. The hinder extremities are tetradacty- 
lous. This species is of very diminutive proportions ; 
the entire body being less than fourteen inches in 
length, and the tail appropriating more than half of 
this measurement. The fur has a pale fulvous colour 
generally ; but it is brownish on the back. The head 
is much shorter than in the great ant-eater, the snout 
terminating more abruptly. The skeleton exhibits 
several peculiarities, but we have only space to men- 
tion the remarkable breadth of the ilbs. The Little 
Ant-eater is a native of Brazil and the northern parts of 
South America. Its habits are similar to those of its 
more powerful congeners. Von Sack, in his “ Voyage 
to Surinam,” gives an interesting accomit of the tame 
ones in his possession ; and after describing their 
characters, he tells us that the inhabitants of that 
country aver, that when captured these animals will 
not be induced to eat, and only lick their paws after 
the fashion of a bear. “ When I obtained the first,” 
says Von Sack, as quoted by kir. Ogilby, “ I sent to 
the forest for a nest of ants, and during the interim I 
put into its cage some eggs, honey, milk, and meat ; 
but it refused to touch any of them. At length the 
ants’ nest arrived ; but the animal did not pay the 
slightest attention to it either. By the shape of its 
fore-paws, which resemble nippers, and differ very 
much from those of all the other species of ant-eaters, 
I thought that this little creature might perhaps live 
on the nymphse of wasps, &c. I therefore brought it a 
wasps’" nest, and then it pulled out with its nippers the 
nymphm from the nest, and began to eat them with 
great eagerness, sitting in the posture of a squirrel. I 
showed this phenomenon to many of the inhabitants, 
who all assured me that it was the first time they had 
ever known that species of animal to take any nourish ■ 
ment. The ants with which I tried it were the large 
termites upon which fowls are fed here.” According 
to Von Sack and most observers, the tail is employed 
as a prehensile organ. It is, as we have seen, larger 
than the body, very stout and broad at its origin, 
thickly clothed with short hairs, and much attenuated 
towards the extremity. Generally speaking, the fur 
displays a tliick, soft, shining, woolly texture. The 
female, it is said, produces a single jmung one at a 
birth, although it is furnished with four mammae. 
THE TAMANDUA {Myrmecophaga 'Tamandua) is, in 
respect of size, intermediate between the two above- 
described species ; the body measuring upwards of 
two feet in length from the extremity of the snout 
to the root of the tail, while the latter organ would 
give us nearly eighteen "inches more. The colour of 
the fur is subject ~to considerable variation; and to so 
great an extent is this the case, that a number of well- 
marked forms have been recognized, and by some the 
more noticeable of them have been regarded as so 
many distinct species. Most, if not all, display a dark 
band on the fur, running diagonally over the shoulders 
from below upwards. The woolly hairs are compara- 
tively short, and the tail instead of being bushy at the 
tip, as in the great ant-eater, terminates in a narrow, 
scaly, prehensile point. The feeding habits of the Ta- 
mandua very closely resemble those of the last-named 
animal ; but it infests the thickest forests of Brazil and 
the neighbouring districts, living almost exclusively 
on the trees. It is particularly partial to honey, and 
proves terribly destructive to the wild and stingless bees 
which form their nests among the highest branches. 
