THE CAPE ANT-EATER--The Cage at “the Zoo”--Appearance of the Animal--Its Prey--The Ant-hills--How the Orycteropus obtains its Food--Place in the Order--Teeth--Skull--Tongue--Interesting Questions concerning the Ant-eater--THE PANGOLINS, OR SCALY ANT-EATERS--THE AFRICAN SCALY ANT-EATERS--Differences between the Pangolins and Cape Ant-eaters--Their Habitat--Description--TEMMINCK’S PANGOLIN--Habits--Food--How it Feeds--Superstitious Regard for it shown by the Natives--Scarcity--Appearance--THE LONG-TAILED, OR FOUR-FINGERED PANGOLIN--THE GREAT MANIS--THE ASIATIC SCALY ANT-EATERS--THE SHORT-TAILED, OR FIVE-FINGERED PANGOLIN--The Species of _Manis_--Skull--Stomach--Claws fitted for Digging--Other Skeletal Peculiarities--THE AMERICAN ANT-EATERS--General Appearance--Genera--THE GREAT ANT-BEAR--Habits--Diet--How it Procures its Food--Distribution--Mode and Rate of Locomotion--Stupidity--Manner of Assault and Defence--Stories of its Contests with other Animals--Appearance--THE TAMANDUA--Description--Where Found--Habits--Odour--THE TWO-TOED ANT-EATER--Appearance--Two-clawed Hand--Habits--Von Sach’s Account of his Specimen. THE CAPE ANT-EATER.[62]--THE AARD-VARK. In one of the cages in the house, close to where the Kangaroos are kept, in the Zoological Gardens of London, there is usually a heap of straw to be seen and an empty dish. Outside the cage is placed the name of an animal, “The Cape Ant-eater.” People look and wait, and as neither the animal nor the Ants it eats are to be seen, they go away, supposing that the absence of the last-named insects has caused the destruction of the animal, whose straw alone remains. But in the evening, and sometimes in the morning, when the food is placed in the cage--not Ants, however--a long pair of stuck-up ears, looking like those of a gigantic Hare with a white skin and little fur, may be seen poked up above the straw; and, soon after, a long white muzzle, with small sharp eyes between it and the long ears, comes into view. Then a very fat and rather short-bodied animal with a long head and short neck, low fore and large hind quarters, with a bowed back, comes forth, and finally a moderately long fleshy tail is seen. It is very pig-like in the look of its skin, which is light-coloured and has a few hairs on it. Moreover, the snout is somewhat like that of a Pig, but the mouth has a small opening only, and to make the difference between the animals decided, out comes a worm-shaped long tongue covered with mucus. The animal has to content itself with other fare than Ants in England, but it seems to thrive, and as it walks slowly on the flat of its feet and hands to its food, they are seen to be armed with very powerful claws. In Southern Africa, whence this animal came, it is as rarely seen by ordinary observers as in England, for there it burrows into the earth with its claws, and makes an underground place to live in, and is nocturnal in its habits, sleeping by day.