Page:Natural History (1848).djvu/252

249 has a slight likeness to a small pig, and hence the name applied to it by the Dutch colonists, which signifies earth-pig.

The teeth, which we have seen in the preceding Families gradually deviating more and more from the forms in which they occur in the higher Mammalia, are now no longer found&#59; the mouth being entirely destitute of incisors, canines, and molars. The jaws are produced into a very long and slender muzzle, terminating in a mouth of extreme smallness. The tongue, which ordinarily lies folded upon itself within the mouth, is capable of protrusion to a great degree, even equaling in some species the length of the whole head and muzzle together. The whole food of these singular animals consists of the termites and ants of tropical countries, which dwell in immense numbers in edifices of their own construction. To tear down the walls of these insect-houses, considerable force is required, and hence the feet are armed with long, powerful, and trenchant claws, that on the middle toe of the fore-foot, in particular, being of enormous size and power. The claws are commonly bent down upon the palm as in the Sloths, being capable of only a partial extension, and that by muscular effort. With these formidable pick-axe-like talons, the Ant-eater tears away the exterior walls of the earthen nests of the termites, which immediately, according to their known instinct, crowding in thousands to the