ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. 
135 
tapering to a point, and, as long as, or longer than the body. 
The whole of the upper surface of the animal is covered 
with overlapping, dark-brown horny scales, with short 
bristles intervening, the under parts being nearly bare. 
These scales are merely agglutinated hairs and quite distinct 
from the osseous armature of the South American arma- 
dilloes here exhibited. They have the power of rolling 
themselves up on the approach of danger, the head being 
bent in on the belly, and the legs drawn in to the sides, 
and bound so firmly by the tail which is thrown 
over the belly, head, and back that it is hardly possible, 
unaided to straighten out one of these animals when so 
coiled. They have long powerful claws on both feet, 
but those on the forefeet are the longer, and by means 
of them they burrow with astonishing rapidity, and, in 
a few minutes, they are lost under ground, their holes ex¬ 
tending downwards about twelve feet in a slanting direc¬ 
tion. Their claws also have special relation to their 
habits of life, namely, that of digging for ants. Their 
tongues are likewise specially modified for drawing in 
these insects, as this organ is a long narrow ribbon-like 
structure, sometimes twelve inches in length, covered with 
a viscid saliva .to which the ants are glued when the tongue 
is darted in among them. They have no teeth. These 
animals have never yet been kept alive in the Gardens 
from the impossibility of procuring for them a sufficient 
and regular supply of their natural food. They are 
now invariably let loose to forage for themselves as 
soon as they arrive, but as they are usually received in 
an emaciated and half-starved condition, they have hither to 
generally died. On one occasion, a Manis or Pangolin, 
stronger than the generality, was let loose, and encountering 
