OEDEE OF EDENTATA. 
319 
able, that it can defend itself successfully against the ferocious 
Jaguar, which it either hugs, like a bear, or tears to pieces with 
its formidable claws. 
It is nocturnal, solitary, and listless in its habits, and delights 
in damp forests and marshy savannahs, in which its insect food 
is most abundant. The female only produces a single young 
one at a time, which she constantly carries on her back. 
Fig. 125. — Great Ant-eater, or Ant Bear ( M.jubata , Linn.) 
In the gardens of the Zoological Society of London, which was 
in possession of two specimens, they were fed on bread, soaked 
in milk, and eggs ; but it became certain that they had also a 
taste for blood, as they were one day noticed sucking the flesh of 
a rabbit which had been given them. 
There are two other species of the Ant-eater, which live more 
or less on trees, and enjoy, on this account, one of the character- 
istics which are peculiar to American Monkeys — that of grasping 
branches firmly with the tail, a portion of which is bare of 
