THE PANGOLINS, OR SCALY ANT-EATERS.[65]
THE AFRICAN SCALY ANT-EATERS.
An animal living in the same country, on the same kind of food, and having many of the habits of the Cape Ant-eater, especially as it belongs to the same order of the animal kingdom, might be expected to resemble it in shape and in most of the important parts of its construction. But the comparison between the Ant-eater, just described, and the Scaly Ant-eater, shows that these animals have some very remarkable differences. The Scaly Ant-eater is toothless, and covered with scales.
TEMMINCK’S PANGOLIN.
TEMMINCK’S PANGOLIN.
Formerly, the Scaly Ant-eaters roamed far south in Africa, but now they are rare animals in South Africa, in the west of the continent, and across to Sennaar. They are found in Zanzibar, and as far south as the latitude of Mozambique. They are small animals, of from two to nearly five feet in length, with long tails; and their body, limbs, and tail are covered with numerous large, somewhat angular, and sharp-edged scales, as with armour. The scales overlap each other like tiles, and the free part pointing backwards is bluntly angular or rounded at the tip. When the animal is on its feet walking, they form a very close and impenetrable covering, being doubtless of great use to the creature, for it must trust entirely to its defences, having no weapon of offence. But when the Scaly Ant-eater is alarmed or threatened with danger, or positively attacked, it rolls itself up like a ball, places the snout between the legs, and the tail underneath, and then sticks up its scales, offering their sharp edges to the enemy. There are several kinds of them, and one in particular was noticed by Dr. Smith, the African traveller, and was named after the zoologist Temminck, MANISTEMMINCKII. He observed that it was rarely seen, but that when it was discovered, instead of burrowing, it did not attempt to escape, but rolled itself up instantly in the shape of a ball, taking especial care of its head, which is the only part unarmoured and likely to be injured. He states that Ants form its chief and favourite food, and that it secures them by extending its projectable tongue into holes which may exist in the habitations of those insects, or which it may itself form. The tongue having made an entry, it is soon covered with a multitude of insects, and as it is well lubricated with saliva, they are held fast, and when a full load is ready, the retracting muscles act on the tongue and the whole is carried back into the mouth, after which the Ants are swallowed. The same traveller accounts for the scarcity of the Scaly Ant-eaters, partly from the disinclination of the natives to discover them for strangers, and partly because they are environed with supernaturalgifts in their eyes. They are carefully sought for, by the natives, for their own use and supposed advantage, for they believe the animal to have some influence on cattle, and that certain treatment to which they are exposed produces this. Whenever a specimen is secured by the natives, it is submitted to fire in some cattle-pen, apparently as a burnt offering for the increase of the health and fertility of all cattle which may henceforward enter the fold. “Here,” writes Dr. Smith, “we have another cause for the obliteration of a species. Intolerance of their aggression has wrought up the shepherd or agriculturist to the destruction of some; but in this case, a species is probably dying out under the influence of a superstition.”
FOUR-FINGERED PANGOLIN.
FOUR-FINGERED PANGOLIN.
They burrow even in rather hard ground, and feed at night time. It has been noticed that the mother sits upright when enticing the young to suckle.
ThisManishas rather a short head, and a wide body, and the tail is as long as the trunk: it is rather less in width near the body, and does not diminish much near the end. In a specimen which is twenty-five inches and a half long, the back of the animal is eight inches across, and the tail at its root is five inches broad. The scales are large, and are in about eleven rows. The body is of a pale yellowish-brown colour, the scales being lightest in tint near their points, and they are often streaked with yellow. Where the scales are wanting the skin is dusky brown. The eyes are reddish-brown, and the muzzle is black. The nails of the fore feet are bent under, so that the animal walks on their upper part. The scales are composed of hairs placed side by side and agglutinated together, and when first formed, and for some little time after, they are soft. They cover the upper part of the fore and hind extremities besides the body, and are striated. This kind lives in Eastern Africa, Sennaar, Caffraria, Kordofan, and Latakoo.
THE LONG-TAILED, OR FOUR-FINGERED PANGOLIN.[66]
This Ant-eater is from two to three feet in length, and the tail is twice as long as the body. It inhabits the Guinea Coast and the Gaboon, and probably Senegal. It is a dark brown animal, with the hair of the face and under sides black in tint. There are eleven series of scales, with the end rounded, and a central prominence.
Buffon described a pale brown or horn-coloured, very scaly, long-tailed Ant-eater as a Phatagin, but it is correctly calledManis tricuspis, from the scales having three projections on them. It lives in Western Africa, Fernando Po, Guinea, and Sierra Leone.
THE GREAT MANIS.[67]
This scaled Ant-eater is thirty inches long in the body, and its tail measures twenty-five inches in length. The great tail lessens to the end, and the scales are striated at the base, the whole colour being pale brown. It is an interesting animal from its likeness to one of the Asiatic species, theManis pentadactyla(Linn.); but the difference in the length of tail is remarkable. It has been found in West Africa, Guinea, and in the Cape Coast Castle district.
THE ASIATIC SCALY ANT-EATERS.
There is one point of great interest about the genusManis, and it is that it is not restricted to Africa, for some species are found over a wide extent of country in India. They live there in a region from the Himalayan Mountains to Ceylon, and eastward to Sumatra and Java, and in Southern China as far as Amoy, Hainan, and Formosa. They afford an instance of closely-allied animals now living in large districts which are separated by seas, deserts, mountains, and rivers, and other impassable barriers. The Javanese are said to have called the animal, from the fact of its rolling itself up, Pangolin, and the Bengalese termed it the Reptile of Stone. The first to be noticed is—
THE SHORT-TAILED, OR FIVE-FINGERED PANGOLIN.[68]
This is supposed to be the Phattage of Ælian, and much resembles Temminck’sManisfrom South Africa. It has a small head, which is pointed and long at the muzzle; the body is rather stout, and the tail is short, broad at the root. The back scales are in longitudinal rows, eleven in number, and they are smaller than those of the African kind. It has the under part of the body, head, and feet naked, and more or less hairy, and some long, fair-coloured hairs spring from between the scales. The middle claw of the fore-foot exceeds the others in size. They feed on white Ants especially. They are found in Bengal, Madras, and Assam.
AManiswith a tail as long as the body, and with the scales of the hind feet acutely pointed, and the front and hind claws nearly equal in size, is found in Sumatra and in Java. Finally, the other Asiatic kind,Manis Dalmannii, is found in the Himalayas, China, and possibly in Java.
All the species of the genusManis, whether from Africa or Asia, are absolutely toothless, and the Edentate peculiarity is perfect, for there are no back teeth. The tongue is worm-like, round, very long, and can be stuck out far from the mouth, and it supplies the want of the teeth, but from having this long organ and no back teeth, the palate and the skull are very long and conical. Being without masticating teeth, the lower jaw is very flat and simple, and there is no ascending ramus. The muscles of the lower jaw being of secondary importance, the arch (zygoma) of bone between the face and the ear is incomplete, and the outside ear is very small. But the organ of hearing is somewhat complicated, and there is a large space in the temporal bone which communicates with the internal ear, so that one tympanum is in communication with the other.
Much saliva is required to moisten the tongue, and the sub-maxillary glands are therefore very large, and reach down under the skin of the neck on to the chest. The stomach is usually, if not always, found to contain stones which the creature has swallowed. Of course it can hardly tell what may be on its tongue in the dark Ants’ nest, and earth and stones are likely to rest on it and be swallowed, but the constant presence of these hard things may have something to do with the absenceof the teeth, and the necessity of having a crushing material somewhere or other. The walls of the stomach are thin near the entry of the gullet tube, but towards the pylorus, or the right side end, the muscles are well developed, and the mucous membrane is very dense.
These animals use their claws for the purpose of digging holes in the ground, or in the Ants’ nests, for the sake of food, and the position in walking is with the front claws bent under, so that the whole weight of the front of the body is felt on the back (or upper part) of the claws. The hind feet are placed flat, and the sole and under part of the claws sustain the hinder quarters. The joints of the five fingers of the fore feet are so arranged that they can bend downwards only, and indeed they are more or less permanently bent, being kept in that position by strong ligaments. This assists the digging powers of the claws, which are, moreover, forked at their points in some species, and the wrist is rendered very strong by having the joints between two of its bones abolished, and they are united by bone, as in the carnivorous animals. The bones thus united are the scaphoid and semi-lunar bones. Every structure in the creature’s fore limbs tends to the promotion of easy and powerful digging, and as the motion of scratching the ground is directly downwards and backwards, the power of moving the wrist half round, and presenting the palm more or less upwards, as in the Sloths and in man, does not exist. In order to prevent this pronation and supination, the part of the fore-arm bone, the radius, next to the elbow, is not rounded, but forms part of a hinge joint. Finally, it is necessary to observe, that the middle claw is the longest of the five on all the extremities, and that as the animal does not require to reach over its head, there is no collar bone.
FIVE-FINGERED PANGOLIN.
FIVE-FINGERED PANGOLIN.
The long tail of the Pangolins, stumpy at the end in some kinds, has a considerable number of bones, usually twenty-six; and the first of them joins on to the last of the back bones of the pelvis. This last, or sacral vertebra, unites on each side with the haunch bones (ischium), and there is no notch in the bone for the passages of the great nerves of the back of the leg, but a hole.
The thigh bone is flattened from before backwards, and the bones of the leg are wide apart, and all this gives extra powers to the muscles which have to direct the scraping and digging by the hind feet. The feet are solid and strong, and have not any of the inside turning and club-foot appearance of the Sloths, and the heel bone projects backwards.
There is an interesting peculiarity about the chest of the Pangolins, for the breast bone is very long, and the cartilage at its end is large, and has two long projections resembling those of the Lizards. The neck consists of seven vertebræ, and the back of thirteen, and there are three or four in the sacrum.
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, isMyrmecophaga—μύρμης (an Ant), and φαγεῖν (to eat)—a second isTamandua, and the third isCyclothurus, 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 genusMyrmecophaga, 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 whichlive upon insects, they are capable of sustaining a total deprivation of nourishment for an almost incredible time.”
GREAT ANT-BEAR.
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 “NaturalHistory 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 theManis, 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]
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 withher 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, andthen 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.
TWO-TOED ANT-EATER.
All these Ant-eaters have great glands (sub-maxillary) for the purpose of secreting the sticky saliva, and the tongue is most movable, and wriggles like an eel in feeding on milk. The Little Ant-eater has arete mirabileof blood-vessels.
Another Cyclothurus lives in Costa Rica, which is golden-yellow in colour, and silky in its hair. It has a broad black stripe on the back.