lked on the sides of its
soles. Oken and St Hilaire would have said that it was "all extremity."
A cup, with the contents of one or two eggs, was brought, and it sucked
them with great avidity, every now and then darting from its small mouth
a very long tongue, which looked like a great, black worm, whisking
about in the custard. One of its showmen told us that it had attacked
the woman of the house the preceding day, and had scratched her arm.
Whether this was true or grossly exaggerated, we know not; but if so, we
suspect that the woman herself must have been in fault, and not the
inoffensive stranger.

On the payment of a handsome consideration to her owners, the poor
captive was transferred from her unwholesome lodging in St Giles's, to
the Gardens of the Zoological Society in the Regent's Park. And within
the last few weeks her solitude has been cheered by the arrival of a
companion from her native forests. The new-comer is in beautiful
condition, though not nearly so large. He has a head decidedly shorter
and stronger, and is probably not yet fully grown.

The great ant-eater seems to be scattered over a wide extent of South
America--Guiana, Brazil, and Paraguay, being its places of abode. It is
a stout animal, measuring from the end of the snout to the tip of the
long tail six or seven feet, of which the tail takes nearly the half; so
that the actual size of its body is much reduced. In Paraguay it is
named _Nurumi_ or _Yogui_. The former name is altered from the native
word for _small mouth_, and indicates a striking peculiarity in its
structure. The Portuguese call it _Tamandua_; the Spaniards, _Osa
hormiguero_ (_i.e._, ant-hill bear). In Paraguay it prefers sides of
lakes where ants, at least termites or white ants, are abundant; but it
also frequents woods. In Guiana, Mr Waterton found it chiefly "in the
inmost recesses of the forest," where it "seems partial to the low and
swampy parts near creeks, where the troely tree grows."[185] It sleeps a
great deal, reclining on its side, as the visitor to the Gardens may
frequently see it do, with its head between its fore-legs, joining its
fore and hindfeet, and spreading the tail so as to cover the whole
body. Huddled up under this thatch, it might almost be taken for a
bundle of coarse and badly dried hay. The tail is thickly covered with
long hairs, placed vertically, the hairs draggling on the ground. When
the creature is irritated, the tail is shaken straight