The Pangolins are also Ant-eaters, but the peculiar nature of the
covering of their bodies will not allow them to be classed with the
preceding family. The hair of their coat is glued together so as to form
large scales, inserted in the skin in nearly the same way as the nails
of a Man, and lapping one over the other, like the slates of a roof.
From their strong resemblance to Reptiles, the name Scaly Lizard has
been applied to these creatures.
The Pangolin (from the Javanese word Pangoeling, meaning to roll into a
ball) have short legs, furnished with stout claws; they are devoid of
any external ear and have no trace of teeth. Their method of feeding is
exactly the same as that of the Ant-eaters; but their head, although
elongated in shape, is not quite so long, and their tongue is less
slender.
They dwell in forests, where they dig burrows, or lodge in the hollow of
trees. When they are attacked, they roll themselves into a ball, like
the Armadillo; at the same time their scales are erected, forming an
impregnable buckler. This family possesses several species.
The Pangolins are of medium size; they never exceed a yard in length.
They are natives of the Old World exclusively; India and the Malay
Isles, the south of China, and a great part of Africa, are the regions
in which they are usually found.
Although the animals look at first sight like curious, heavy-bodied
Lizards, they have warm blood, and nourish their young like the rest of
the Mammalia. The Pangolin lives in burrows in the earth, or sometimes
in the large hollows of colossal trees which have fallen to the ground.
The burrows are usually made in light soil on the slope of a hill. There
are two holes to each gallery: One for entrance, and another for exit.
This is quite necessary on account of the animal being quite incapable
of curving its body sideways, so that it cannot turn itself in its
burrow.
The bodies of Pangolins are very flexible vertically—that is, they can
roll themselves up into a ball, and coil and uncoil themselves very
readily—but they cannot turn round within the confined limits of their
burrows.
“In hunting them,” says M. Du Chaillu, “we had first to ascertain by the
foot-marks, or more readily by the marks left by the trail of the tail,
which was the entrance and which the exit of the burrow, and then making
a trap at one end, drive them out by the smoke of a fire at the other,
afterwards securing them with ropes.
“Their flesh is good eating. Those I captured were very lean, but I was
informed by the natives that they are sometimes very fat.”