being unable to leap, or to turn with even ordinary rapidity, he is necessarily forced to act solely on the defensive.” The flesh of the Ant-eater is esteemed a delicacy by the Indians and negro slaves, and, though black, and of a strong musky flavour, is sometimes even met with at the tables of Europeans. This large Ant-eater, grey in colour, with a black-coloured throat and a triangular spot, black in tint, ascending obliquely over each shoulder, has four claws on the fore limb and five on the hinder extremity. The claws are grooved underneath, and are not split or forked as in the _Manis_, and they, and especially the great middle claw, are protected by an expansion of bone from the last joint of the digits, or toes. This envelopes the base of the claw, except quite underneath, leaving the tip free to perform its office without endangering the tender base. The tips are protected, moreover, in the fore limbs by the position assumed during standing and walking, for they are then turned in and do not touch the ground; but this is not the case in the feet, for the Great Ant-Bears rest on their soles. Without teeth, and having an incomplete arch of bone between the cheek and ear bones, they possess a long palate, so long, indeed, that when the long nose cavity opens into the throat in the skeleton certain bones called pterygoid, or wing-shaped, form part of its boundary. This is unusual amongst the Mammalia, and Huxley observes that it is only found in some of the Whale tribe (_Cetacea_). Moreover, it is not noticed in any other vertebrate animals except the Crocodiles. The skull is very low and long, and the framework of the tongue is as important as that of the jaws. This kind of Ant-eater has imperfect collar bones. As in the other Ant-eaters there is in this one a very muscular condition of the right side of the stomach.[70] THE TAMANDUA.[71]