point of attack, the quadruped darts among them
his long slender tongue, covered with a viscid
secretion, and draws it back into his mouth with a
swift motion, covered with the entangled insects.
The affinity between these animals and the Sloths is strongly perceived in many points of their anatomy, besides the size and peculiar conformation of the claws; and particularly the great fossil Sloths, the Megathertidæ. Two very distinct forms are found in this Family: the one that of the Ant-eaters proper, confined to South America, covered with long coarse hair; the other that of the Pangolins of India and Africa, clothed with large sharp-edged, bony scales, overlapping one another like those of a fish. ‘These also have the power of rolling themselves up into a ball, when the cutting edges of the scales project on all sides and form an efficient defence. With this very obvious exception, however, there is little difference in anatomy or economy, between the Ant-eaters and the Pangolins.
Genus Myrmecophaga. (Linn.)
We have but little to add to the distinguishing characters of this small group, which we have indicated above. The toes, of which we have already spoken, vary in number in the species; for while the Great Ant-bear and the Tamandua have four on the front feet, and five on the hind, the Little Ant-eater has but two on the fore-feet, and four on the hind. As in the Sloths, the toes are inclosed in the skin, and are therefore incapable of separate motion, but this rigidity greatly increases the power of the foot as an instrument
