Читать книгу The Circle of Knowledge: A Classified, Simplified, Visualized Book of Answers - Various - Страница 256

Some of the animals belonging to this division have no teeth at all, and all are without the front incisors. They are slow, stupid animals, and work only in the night-time. They are all inhabitants of Brazil with the exception of two species. Nearly all are provided with very long claws. They live in trees or in subterraneous passages.

Ant-eater or Ant-bear (Myrmecophaga jubata) attains a length of six feet six inches, of which its long-haired, plumy tail takes twenty-eight inches. The color of its hair is blackish brown; it can project its worm-like tongue to a distance of sixteen inches. The Great Ant-eater is a native of Brazil and Guiana, and much the largest of all the species.

The ant-eater inhabits the same regions as the sloth. It feeds on ants and termites. Raking up the habitations of these insects with its sharp claws, it inserts its proboscis, and begins to work with its viscous (sticky) tongue, to which hundreds of ants remain sticking.

Armadillo (Dasypus peba).—A mammal peculiar to South America, consisting of various species, belonging to a family intermediate between the sloths and ant-eaters. They are covered with a hard bony shell, divided into belts, composed of small separate plates like a coat of mail, flexible everywhere except on the forehead, shoulders, and haunches, where it is not movable. The belts are connected by a membrane, which enables the animal to roll itself up like a hedgehog. These animals burrow in the earth, where they lie during the daytime, seldom going abroad except at night. They are of different sizes; the largest, Dasypus gigas, being three feet in length without the tail, and the smallest only ten inches. They subsist chiefly on fruits and roots, sometimes on insects and flesh. They are inoffensive, and their flesh is esteemed good food.

Pangolin (Manis longicaudata).—There are several species of these scaly ant-eaters. They are found in Africa and Asia, and are covered with dark brown scales, which are arranged one above the other like tiles. When danger approaches the pangolin does not run away, but rolls itself together into a ball like the hedge-hog.

Sloth (Bradypus pallidus).—The general color of the sloth is reddish grey, its abdomen lighter. It is about sixteen inches in length, and has three long claws on each foot.

It inhabits the thickets of the virgin forests of Brazil, passing its life in laziness upon the tops of trees, the leaves of which form its food. During the day it hangs down asleep from a bough, and is then only discovered with difficulty. In the same position it creeps along the boughs, and does not leave the tree until the latter is stripped of all its leaves and fruits. When it descends to the ground it is very helpless, and can neither walk nor stand. It gives the best proof of its skill when climbing, hanging down from a bough by means of one of its feet, while it seizes the fruits with the other. It sometimes pierces the large snakes of Brazil with its long claws, so that they die from loss of blood. Its attachment to its young is very touching and the mother carries them on her back from bough to bough.