South America produces three animals with a long snout, a small mouth,
without teeth, and a large round tongue; with which they penetrate
into the ants' nests, and draw them out again when covered with those
insects, which are their principal food. The first of these ant-eaters
is that which the Brasilians call Tamandua-Gaucu, or Great Tamandua,
and to which the French settled in America have given the name of
Tamanoir. This animal (_fig. 124._) is about four feet in length from
the extremity of the muzzle to the origin of its tail; his head is
fourteen or fifteen inches long, his muzzle stretches out to a great
length; his tail is two feet and a half long, is covered with rough
hair, more than a foot in length; his neck is short, his head narrow,
his eyes black and small, his ears round, his tongue thin, more than
two feet long, and which he folds up in his mouth. His legs are but
one foot high; the fore-legs are a little higher, and more slender
than those behind: he has round feet; the fore-feet are armed with four
claws, the two middle ones are the longest; those behind have five
claws. The hair of his tail and body are black and white. Upon the tail
they are disposed in a bunch, which he turns up on his back, and covers
with it his whole body, when he is inclined to sleep, or wants to
shelter himself from the rain or heat of the sun. The long hair of his
tail and of his body is not round in all its extent; it is flat towards
the ends, and feels like dry grass. He waves his tail frequently and
hastily when he is irritated, but it hangs down when he is composed,
and sweeps along the ground. The hair of the fore-part of his body is
longer than that on the hind part. On the neck and back it is somewhat
erect, and towards the tail, and on the flanks, close to the skin; his
fore-parts are variegated with white, and his hind-parts wholly black;
he has also a white stripe on the breast, which extends on the sides
of the body and terminates on the back near the thighs; his hind-legs
are almost black, and the fore-legs almost white, with a large black
spot towards the middle. The Great Ant-eater moves so slow that a man
can easily overtake him in running; his feet seem less calculated to
walk than to climb, and to fasten round bodies; for he holds so fast a
branch, or a stick, that it is not possible to force it from him.
The second of these animals is called by the Americans only Tamandua;
he is much smaller than the former, being not above eighteen inches
from the extremities of the muzzle to the tail; his head is five inches
long, his muzzle crooked, and long; his tail ten inches long, without
hair at the end; his ears are erect, and about an inch long; his tongue
is round, eight inches long, and placed in a sort of hollow canal
within the lower jaw; his legs are not above four inches in height, his
feet are of the same form, and have the same number of claws as the
Great Ant-Eater. He climbs and holds fast a branch, or a stick, like
the former, and his motions are equally slow. He cannot cover himself
with his tail, the hair being short, and the end almost bare. When he
sleeps he hides his head under his neck and fore-legs.
The third of these animals, the natives of Guiana call _ouatiriouaou_.
He is still smaller than the second, being not above six or seven
inches in length from the extremities of the snout to the tail; his
head is two inches long; and his muzzle proportionally short; his tail
is seven inches in length, the hair curls downwards, and it is bare
at the end; his tongue is narrow, long, and flat; his neck is very
short, his head big in proportion to the body; his eyes are placed low,
and at a little distance from the corners of the mouth, his ears are
small, and hidden by the hair; his legs are but three inches long, the
fore-feet have only two claws, the outward of which is much thicker
and longer than the inward; the hind feet have four claws, the hair of
the body is about nine inches long; smooth, and of a shining colour,
diversified with red and yellow, his feet are not made to walk, but to
climb and to take hold of branches of trees, on which he hangs himself
by the extremity of his tail.
We know of these kind of animals only the three species we have
mentioned. M. Brisson, after Seba, speaks of a fourth species, under
the denomination of the _long-eared ant-eater_, but we doubt its
existence; because Seba has been guilty of more than one error in
enumerating animals of this kind; he says expressly, "we preserve in
our cabinet six species called ant-eaters," and yet he gave only a
description of five; and amongst them he reckoned the _ysquiepatl_, or
_mouffette_, an animal, not only of a species, but even of a genus,
widely different from the ant-eaters, as he has teeth, and a flat
short tongue, like other quadrupeds, and comes very near a kind of
weasels or martens. Out of these six species, pretended to be preserved
in the cabinet of Seba, four only remain, as the ysquiepatl, which
he reckoned the fifth, is no ant-eater, and the sixth is not even
mentioned, unless the author meant to comprehend among these animals
the _Pangolin_ or scaly lizard, which he does not intimate in his
description of that animal. The scaly lizard feeds upon ants; he has
a long muzzle, a narrow mouth, without visible teeth, and the tongue
round; characteristics which he has in common with ant-eaters; but
he differs from it as well as from all other quadrupeds, by having
the body covered with thick scales instead of hair. Besides, this
animal belongs to the hottest climates of the old continent, and the
ant-eaters, whose bodies are covered with hair, are found only in the
southern parts of the new world. There are therefore no more than
four species instead of six, mentioned by Seba, and out of these four
there is but one species discernible by its description; which is
our third or smallest ant-eater, to whom Seba allows but one claw to
each foot, though he has two. The three others are so imperfectly
described, that they cannot be traced to their true species. One may
judge by this of the credit which Seba's voluminous book deserves.
This animal which he calls _tamandua murmecophage_ of America, and
the figure of which he has given[AD], cannot be compared with either
of the three we are now treating of, it is sufficient to be convinced
of his error by reading his description. The second which he terms
_tamandua-guacu_ of Brasil, or the _bear ant-eater_, is described in
a vague, equivocal manner; yet I am inclined to think with Klein and
Linnæus, that he meant the true tamandua-guacu, or great ant-eater, but
it is so badly described, and so imperfectly represented, that Linnæus
has comprehended, under one species, the first and second of Seba's
animals. M. Brisson considered the last as a particular species, but I
do not believe his establishment of this species better founded than
his criticism on M. Klein, for having confounded it with that of the
great ant-eater. The only just reproach M. Klein has incurred, is to
have added to the good description he has given of this animal, the
erroneous indications of Seba. In fine, the third of these animals,
whose figure is given in that work, is so badly described, that I
cannot persuade myself, notwithstanding the respect I have for Linnæus
and Brisson's authority, this animal from Seba's description and figure
can be the middle ant-eater; I only wish that his description may
be attended to in order to judge of its fallacy. These discussions,
although tedious and disagreeable, cannot be avoided in the details of
a Natural History. Before we write upon a subject very little known, we
must, as much as possible, remove all obscurities, and point out the
numberless errors before we can come to the truth. The result of this
criticism is a proof that three species of ant-eaters really exist,
namely the _tamanoir_, the _tamandua_, and the _ouatiriouaou_, and that
the fourth called the _long-eared ant-eaters_, mentioned by M. Brisson,
is doubtful, as well as the other species indicated by Seba. I have
seen the first and last with their skins, in the king's cabinet; and
they are certainly very different from each other. We have not seen the
tamandua, but have described it, after Piso and Marcgrave, the only
authors that ought to be consulted upon this animal, as all others
have only copied them. The tamandua, and the small ant-eater have the
extremities of their tails bare, with which they hang on the branches
of trees, and when they perceive hollows, they put their tongues
within, and draw them instantly back in their mouths, to swallow the
insects which they have gathered.
[Footnote AD: Seba, tom. I, p. 60, tab. 37. fig. 2.]
These three animals, so different in size and proportions of the body,
have many things in common, both as to conformation and instinct. All
feed upon ants, and put their tongues into honey, and other liquid
and viscous substances; they gather quickly crumbs of bread and small
pieces of meat; they are easily tamed; they can subsist a long while
without food; they do not swallow all the liquor which they take into
their mouths, a part returning through their nostrils; they commonly
sleep in the day-time, and change their station in the night; they go
so slow that a man may overtake them easily whilst running in open
ground. The savages eat their flesh, but which has an unsavoury taste.
The great ant-eater looks, at a distance, like a fox, and for that
reason some travellers call him the American fox; he is strong enough
to defend himself against a large dog, and even the jaguar. When
attacked he at first fights standing on his hind legs, like the bear,
and makes use of his fore claws, which are powerful weapons; afterwards
he lies down on his back, and uses all four feet, and in that situation
he is almost invincible, and fights with obstinacy till the last
extremity; even after he has put to death his adversary he keeps hold
of him a long while. He maintains the fight longer than most animals,
from being covered with long bushy hair and a very thick skin, besides
his flesh is remarkably hard, and he seldom loses his life in these
engagements.
The three ant-eaters are natives of the hottest climates of America,
are found in Brasil, Guiana, the country of the Amazons, &c. but they
are not met with in Canada, or in the northern regions of the new
world, they consequently do not belong to the ancient continent; yet
Kolbe and Desmarchais have stated these animals to live in Africa, but
they seem to have confounded the scaly lizard with the ant-eaters.
Perhaps this mistake is in consequence of a passage of Marcgrave, who
says: "_Tamandua-guacu Brasiliensibus, congensibus (ubi et frequens
est) umbula dictus_;" but Marcgrave certainly never saw this animal in
Africa, since he confesses that he had seen only his skin in America.
Desmarchais only says that the great ant-eater is found in Africa as
well as America, but he adds no circumstance to prove this fact. In
regard to Kolbe's attestation, we reckon it nothing, for a man who
has seen at the Cape of Good Hope, elks and lynxes, like those of
Prussia, might also see the ant-eaters in the same climate. But they
are not mentioned by any authors among the animals of Asia or Africa,
while all the travellers, and most of the historians, of America, make
a particular mention of them. De Lery, de Laët, Father d'Abbeville,
Maffèe, Faber, Nieremberg, and M. de la Condamine, agree with Piso and
Barrere, in declaring that the ant-eaters are peculiar to the warm
countries of America; thus we cannot doubt that Desmarchais and Kolbe
were mistaken, and that these three species of animals do not exist in
the ancient continents.