ua is usually of a dull straw-colour, although it varies in
this respect, so that several species have been supposed to exist. It
spends most of its time upon the trees; and in addition to its ant-diet,
it feeds upon wild honey, and bees too, whenever it can catch them. The
female, like the tamanoir, produces only one young at a birth, and like
the other species, carries it upon her back until it is able to provide
for itself. The tamandua has sometimes been called _tridactyla_, or the
"three-toed ant-eater," because it has only three claws upon each of its
fore-feet, whereas the tamanoir is provided with four.

Another species of "ant-bear," differing from both in size and in many
of its habits, is the "little ant-eater" (_Myrmecophaga didactyla_).
This one has only two claws on each fore-foot, hence its specific name.
It is a very small creature--not larger than the _common grey_
squirrel--with a prehensile tail like the tamandua. The tail, however,
is not entirely naked--only on the under side near the point. It is not
so good a walker as the three-toed kind, though more active on its feet
than the tamanoir. Standing upon its hind-feet, and supporting itself
also by the tail--which it has already thrown around some branch--the
little ant-eater uses its fore-feet as hands to carry food to its mouth.
It lives among the trees, and feeds upon wasps, bees, and especially
the larvae of both; but it does not use the tongue to any great extent.
It is, on this account, an essentially different sort of animal.

The little ant-eater is usually of a bright yellow colour, brownish on
the back; but there are many varieties in this respect, and some are of
a snowy whiteness. Its fur is soft and silky, sometimes slightly curled
or matted at the points, and the tail fur is annulated, or ringed, with
the prevailing colours of the body.

So much for the ant-bears of America.

CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN.

THE ANT-LION.

Ants are disagreeable insects in any country, but especially so in warm
tropical climates. Their ugly appearance, their destructive habits,
but, above all, the pain of their sting, or rather bite--for ants do not
sting as wasps, but bite with the jaws, and then infuse poison into the
wound--all these render them very unpopular creatures. A superficial
thinker would suppose that such troublesome insects could be of no use,
and would question the propriety of Nature in having created them. But
when we give th