allen tree, which his unerring instinct tells
him is perforated through and through, and filled with the swarming
millions of ants; with his powerful jaws he munches up the entire mass;
the thin and papery partitions of the dusty wood are ground to powder,
and the ants are licked in and chewed into a black pulp between those
curious cylinders of teeth.

But lo! here are mightier creatures yet! See the vast Mylodon, the
Scelidothere, and the still more colossal Megathere. Ponderous giants
these! The very forests seem to tremble under their stately stride.
Their immense bulk preponderates behind, terminating in a tail of
wonderful thickness and solidity: the head is mean and awakens no
terror; the eye lacks lustre and threatens no violence, though the whole
form betokens vast power, and the stout limbs are terminated by the same
stout, inbent, sharp hoof-claws. One of them approaches that
wide-spreading locust-tree; he gazes up at the huge mud-brown structures
that resemble hogsheads affixed to the forks of the branches, and he
knows that the luscious termites are filling them to overflowing. His
lips water at the tempting sight; have them he must. But how? that heavy
sternpost of his was never made for climbing; yet see! he rears himself
up against the tree; is he about to essay the scaling? Not he: he knows
his powers better. He gives it one embrace; one strong hug; as if to
test its thickness and hold upon the earth. Now he is digging away
below, scooping out the soft soil from between the roots,--and it is
marvellous to note how rapidly he lays them bare with those great
shovel-like claws of his. Now he rears himself again; straddles wide on
his hind feet, fixing the mighty claws deep in the ground; plants
himself firmly on his huge tail, as on the third foot of a tripod, and
once more grasps the tree. The enormous hind quarters, the limbs and the
loins, the broad pelvis, the thick spinal cord supplying abundant
nervous energy to the swelling muscles, inserted in the ridged and
keeled bones, all come into play, as a _point d'appui_ for the Herculean
effort. "And now conceive the massive frame of the Megathere convulsed
with the mighty wrestling, every vibrating fibre reacting upon its bony
attachment with the force of a hundred giants: extraordinary must be the
strength and proportions of the tree, if, when rocked to and fro, to
right and left, in such an embrace, it can long withstand the efforts of
its assailant."[5