THE AMERICAN ANT-EATERS.
The adjective “long” may be applied to nearly all the structures of these animals. The tail, body, neck, head, snout, and tongue, and the hair are all very long, and the only things which are short are the ears. The observer is immediately struck with the curiously-shaped head, so narrow, low, and ending in a flexible and very slender snout, especially if the round tongue happens to be projecting out of the mouth, for it is longer even than the head, and is like a gigantic worm. The snout appears bent, and is made to look all the longer, by the eye being placed not far from the small ear. Then the huge bushy tail, flattened from side to side, as long as the body, has a fringe of very long and strong hair. The body itself moves on four powerful limbs, well clawed, and looks bulky from the quantity of hair on it, but usually it is thin. The animal, when it stands still, is higher at the shoulders than behind, and it rests on the sides of the fore-feet, where there is a callous pad, the claws being bent inwards and under, and not touching the ground with their tips. The under part of the hind feet bears the weight of the hind limbs. It is about four feet and a half in length from the snout to the tail, the tail being rather more than three feet in length, and the height is about three feet and a half. So long is the head, that it measures thirteen inches and a half from the ear to the snout, and the tongue can be projected for sixteen or eighteen inches, and is, when brought back into the mouth, bent so that its tip looks backwards towards the throat.
The animal belongs to a group of the Edentata (for it is toothless) which has the following genera:—One genus, which is now being considered, is Myrmecophaga—μύρμης (an Ant), and φαγεῖν (to eat)—a second is Tamandua, and the third is Cyclothurus, from κυκλωτός (rounded). The animals of this group represent in South America the Pangolins and Cape Ant-eaters of the Old World.
The species of the genus Myrmecophaga, which has been thus slightly alluded to, is called the Maned Ant-eater.
THE GREAT ANT-BEAR.[69]
The habits of this animal, which has been named Great Ant-Bear by the English and Spaniards, have been described as follows:—“The habits of the Great Ant-Bear are slothful and solitary; the greater part of his life is consumed in sleeping, notwithstanding which he is never fat, and rarely even in good condition. When about to sleep he lies on one side, conceals his long snout in the fur of the breast, locks the hind and fore claws into one another, so as to cover the head and belly, and turns his long, bushy tail over the whole body in such a manner as to protect it from the too powerful rays of the sun. The female bears but a single young one at a birth, which attaches itself to her back, and is carried about with her wherever she goes, rarely quitting her, even for a year after it has acquired sufficient strength to walk and provide for itself. This unprolific constitution, and the tardy growth of the young, account for the comparative rarity of these animals, which are said to be seldom seen, even in their native regions. The female has only two mammæ, situated on the breast, like those of Monkeys, Apes, and Bats. In his natural state the Ant-Bear lives exclusively upon Ants, to procure which he opens their hills with his powerful crooked claws, and at the moment that the insects, according to their nature, flock from all quarters to defend their dwellings, draws over them his long, flexible tongue covered with glutinous saliva, to which they consequently adhere; and so quickly does he repeat this operation, that we are assured he will thus exsert his tongue and draw it in again covered with insects twice in a second. He never actually introduces it into the holes or breaches which he makes in the hills themselves, but only draws it lightly over the swarms of insects which will issue forth, alarmed by his attack. ‘It seems almost incredible,’ says D’Azara, ‘that so robust and powerful an animal can procure sufficient sustenance from Ants alone; but this circumstance has nothing strange in it to those who are acquainted with the tropical parts of America, and who have seen the enormous multitudes of these insects, which swarm in all parts of the country to that degree that their hills often almost touch one another for miles together.’ The same author informs us that domestic Ant-Bears were occasionally kept by different persons in Paraguay, and that they had even been sent alive to Spain, being fed upon bread-and-milk mixed with morsels of flesh minced very small. Like all animals which live upon insects, they are capable of sustaining a total deprivation of nourishment for an almost incredible time.”
GREAT ANT-BEAR.
The Great Ant-Bear is found in all the warm and tropical parts of South America, from Colombia to Paraguay, and from the shores of the Atlantic to the foot of the Andes. His favourite resorts are the low, swampy savannahs, along the banks of rivers and stagnant ponds. He is found also frequenting the humid forests, but never climbing trees, as falsely reported by Buffon, on the authority of La Borde. His pace is slow, heavy, and hesitating; his head is carried low, as if he smelled the ground at every step, whilst his long, shaggy tail, drooping behind him, sweeps the ground on each side, and readily indicates his path to the hunter; though, when hard pressed, he increases his pace to a slow gallop, yet his greatest velocity never half equals the ordinary running of a man. So great is his stupidity, that those who encounter him in the woods or plains may drive him before them by merely pushing him with a stick, so long, at least, as he is not compelled to proceed beyond a moderate gallop; but if pressed too hard, or urged to extremity, he turns obstinate, sits up on his hind quarters like a Bear, and defends himself with his powerful claws. Like that animal, his usual, and indeed only, mode of assault is by seizing his adversary with his fore paws, wrapping his arms round him, and endeavouring by this means to squeeze him to death. His great strength and powerful muscles would easily enable him to accomplish his purpose in this respect, even against the largest animals of his native forests, were it but guided by ordinary intelligence, or accompanied with a common degree of activity. But in these qualities there are few animals, indeed, which do not greatly surpass the Ant-Bear, so that the different stories handed down by writers on natural history from one to another, and copied, without question, into the histories and descriptions of this animal, may be regarded as pure fiction. For this statement we have the express authority of Don Felix d’Azara, an excellent observer and credible writer, from whose “Natural History of the Quadrupeds of Paraguay” we have derived the greater portion of the preceding account of the habits and economy of this extraordinary animal. “It is supposed,” says Don Felix, “that the Jaguar himself dares not attack the Ant-Bear, and that if, pressed by hunger, or under some other excitement, he does so, the Ant-Bear hugs him and embraces him so tightly, as very soon to deprive him of life, not even relaxing his hold for hours after life has been extinguished by his assailant. It is very certain that such is the manner in which the Ant-eater defends himself; but it is not to be believed that his utmost efforts could prevail against the Jaguar, which, by a single bite or blow of his paw, could kill the Ant-eater before he was prepared for resistance; for even in so extreme a case, his motions are so slow and so heavy, that he takes some time to get himself ready, and besides being unable to leap, or to turn with even ordinary rapidity, he is necessarily forced to act solely on the defensive.” The flesh of the Ant-eater is esteemed a delicacy by the Indians and negro slaves, and, though black, and of a strong musky flavour, is sometimes even met with at the tables of Europeans.
This large Ant-eater, grey in colour, with a black-coloured throat and a triangular spot, black in tint, ascending obliquely over each shoulder, has four claws on the fore limb and five on the hinder extremity. The claws are grooved underneath, and are not split or forked as in the Manis, and they, and especially the great middle claw, are protected by an expansion of bone from the last joint of the digits, or toes. This envelopes the base of the claw, except quite underneath, leaving the tip free to perform its office without endangering the tender base. The tips are protected, moreover, in the fore limbs by the position assumed during standing and walking, for they are then turned in and do not touch the ground; but this is not the case in the feet, for the Great Ant-Bears rest on their soles. Without teeth, and having an incomplete arch of bone between the cheek and ear bones, they possess a long palate, so long, indeed, that when the long nose cavity opens into the throat in the skeleton certain bones called pterygoid, or wing-shaped, form part of its boundary. This is unusual amongst the Mammalia, and Huxley observes that it is only found in some of the Whale tribe (Cetacea). Moreover, it is not noticed in any other vertebrate animals except the Crocodiles. The skull is very low and long, and the framework of the tongue is as important as that of the jaws. This kind of Ant-eater has imperfect collar bones. As in the other Ant-eaters there is in this one a very muscular condition of the right side of the stomach.[70]