THE TAMANDUA.[71]
The Tamandua is much smaller than the Great Ant-eater, and is, were it not for its long snout and tail, somewhat like a Sloth. It is nearly as large as one of these animals, and has a long head, small rounded ears, and small mouth. The body, some two feet in length, is rather short, and is covered with short, silky, or woolly shining hair, of almost uniform length. The fore limbs are very stout, especially above the elbow, and the hind ones rest on the rather long sole. The tail is about a foot and a half in length; it is stout at its root, and round and tapering to the blunt end, is minutely scaled, and covered in some places with short hairs. The fore claws are bent on the hand, and the animal walks on their outer and upper surface, using them also to clasp and to hang on in climbing. The tail is more or less prehensile. The colour of the hair and the markings varies much in the species, and in captivity the rusty straw-colour of the body becomes whiter; but there is a line of black on the upper part of the chest reaching over the shoulders and between them and the neck on to the back, and also several black patches over the tail and on the flanks.
The Tamandua is an inhabitant of the thick primeval forests of tropical America, and lives in Brazil and Paraguay. It is rarely found on the ground, but resides almost exclusively on trees, where it lives upon termites, honey, and even, according to the report of D’Azara, bees, which in those countries form their hives among the loftiest branches of the forest, and, having no sting, are more readily despoiled of their honey than their congeners of Great Britain. When about to sleep, it hides its muzzle in the fur of its breast, falls on its belly, letting its fore feet hang down on each side, and wrapping the whole tightly round with its tail. The female, as in the case of the Great Ant-eater, has but two pectoral mammæ, and produces but a single cub at a birth, which she carries about with her on her shoulders for the first three or four months. The young are at first exceedingly deformed and ugly, and of an uniform straw-colour.
The animal is called Cagouaré by the Guaranis, on account of the noxious and infected vapours of the forests in which alone it is found, the word literally signifying, in the language of those Indians, “the inhabitants of a stinking wood or marsh.” Such at least is D’Azara’s interpretation of the term, though it appears more probable that it may refer to the strong disagreeable odour of the animal itself, which, this very author informs us, is so powerful that it may be perceived at a very great distance, particularly when the animal is irritated. Tamandua is the name by which it is known to the Portuguese of Brazil; the French and the English call it Fourmilier and Little Ant-Bear.
THE TWO-TOED ANT-EATER.[72]
These little animals appear, at first sight, to resemble Sloths with tails; and their round heads, furry bodies, and two claws on the fore limb, add to the resemblance. They are essentially arboreal animals also, but they have long and useful tails, and live on insects. They hunt their insect prey in the forests of Costa Rica, Honduras, and Brazil. Their two-clawed hands are remarkable, for the rudiments of the thumb and little finger are hidden beneath the skin, and the claws are placed on the first and second digits. The third digit has no claw. There are four claws on the feet, so that in this arrangement the animal is peculiar amongst the Ant-eaters. It is not larger than a common Squirrel, and the general shape of the body is like that of a Tamandua on a small scale. Its whole length, from the snout to the origin of the tail, is but six inches, and of the tail, seven inches and a quarter. This is consequently rather longer than the body; it is thick at the root, and covered with short fur, but tapers suddenly towards the point, where it is naked and strongly prehensile. The muzzle is not so long, in proportion, as in the other two species; the tongue also is shorter, and has a flatter form; the mouth opens further back in the jaws, and has a much larger gape, the eye being situated close to its posterior angle; the ears are short, rather drooping, and concealed among the long fur which covers the head and cheeks; the legs are short and stout; and the hair, very soft and fine to the touch, is three-quarters of an inch in length on the body, but much shorter on the head, legs, and tail. The general colour is that of straw, more or less tinged with maroon on the shoulders, and particularly along the median line of the back, which usually exhibits a deep line of this shade. The feet and tail are grey.
This species is said to have four mammæ, two pectoral, as in those already described, and two others on the abdomen. It is reported, nevertheless, to have but a single cub at birth, which it conceals in the hollow of some decayed tree. The habits and manners of this little animal, hitherto very imperfectly known to naturalists, are well described by Von Sach, in his “Narrative of a Voyage to Surinam.”
“I have had two little Ant-eaters, or Fourmiliers, which were not larger than a Squirrel. One was of a bright-yellow colour, with a brown stripe on the back, the other was a silvery-grey, and darker on the back. The hair of each was very soft and silky, a little crisped; the head was small and round, the nose long, gradually bending downwards to a point; it had no teeth, but a very long round tongue; the eyes were very small, round, and black; the legs rather short; the fore-feet had only two claws on each, the exterior being much larger and stronger than the interior, which exactly filled the curve or hollow of the large one; the hind feet had four claws of a moderate size; the tail was prehensile, longer than the body, thick at the base and tapering to the end, which, for some inches on the under side, was bare. This little animal is called in Surinam ‘Kissing-hand,’ as the inhabitants pretend that it will never eat, at least when caught, but that it only licks its paws, in the same manner as the Bear; that all trials to make it eat have proved in vain, and that it soon dies in confinement. When I got the first, 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 different species of Ant-eaters, I thought that this little creature might perhaps live on the nymphæ of Wasps, &c. I therefore brought it a Wasps’ nest, and then it pulled out, with its nippers, the nymphæ from the nest, and began to eat them with the greatest 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 take any nourishment. The Ants which I tried it with were the large white termites upon which fowls are fed here. As the natural history of this pretty little animal is not much known, I thought of trying if they would breed in a cage; but when I returned from my excursion into the country I found them both dead, perhaps occasioned by the trouble given to procure the Wasps’ nest for them, though they are here very plentiful; wherefore I can give no further description of them, than that they slept all the day long, curled together, and fastened by their prehensile tails to one of the perches of the cage. When touched they erected themselves on their hind legs, and struck with the fore-paws at the object which disturbed them, like the hammer of a clock striking the bell, with both paws at the same time, and with a great deal of strength. They never attempted to run away, but were always ready for defence when attacked. As soon as evening came, they awoke, and with the greatest activity walked on the wire of the cage, though they never jumped, nor did I ever hear their voice.”
TWO-TOED ANT-EATER.