of climbing trees, and making their nests high up in the
cavities of the trunks. They have the further power of being able to
suspend themselves from the branches with their tails, which, like those
of the opossums, are highly prehensile. The tamanduas do not live
solely upon ant-diet. The wild bees, that build nests among the
branches, are also objects of their attention; and their thick hairy
skins appear to protect them from the stings of these insects.

The smallest species--called the Ouatiri, or Two-toed Ant-eater--differs
altogether from the three above-mentioned. It more resembles a little
monkey, and is covered all over with a thick coat of soft woolly hair of
a yellowish colour. It is also a tree-climber, possesses a naked
prehensile tail, and makes its nest in a hole in the trunk, or in one of
the larger branches.

In Africa the ant-eaters are represented by several kinds of animals,
differing essentially from each other in outward appearance, though all
agreeing in their habits, or rather in the nature of their food.

The Aard-vark, or Earth-hog, of the Cape colonists, is the most noted
kind. This animal is a long, low-bodied creature, with sharp-pointed
snout, and an immense whip-like tongue, which he is capable of
projecting to a great distance, in the same manner as the tamanoir. His
body is covered with a dense shock of reddish-brown hair; and he dwells
in a burrow, which he can cleverly make for himself--hence his trivial
name of Ground-hog.

The other African ant-eaters are usually called Pangolins, or Manis.
These are covered with scales that resemble suits of ancient armour; and
on this account they have sometimes been confounded with the
armadilloes, though the two kinds of creatures are altogether different
in their habits. The pangolins possess, in common with the armadilloes,
the power of rolling themselves into a ball whenever attacked by an
enemy--a fashion not peculiar to pangolins and armadilloes, but also
practised by our own well-known hedgehog.

The Sloths belong to this group of mammalia; not that they have the
slightest resemblance to the ant-eaters in any respect, but simply, as
before stated, because they want the cutting teeth. They are not
absolutely toothless, however, since they possess both canines and
molars. With these they are enabled to masticate their food, which
consists of the leaves and tender shoots of trees.

The name, _sloth_, is derived from the sluggis