The Portland daily press., 1867-04-16
Pleasing Miscellany.
A Curious Ant Eater.

A Curious Ant Eater.
We add to our already extended extracts
from NJ. du Chaillu's @Journey to Ashaneo
Land" the following spirited description:
The next morning went with number
of men in search of the ipi. From the descrip-
tion given me by the natives l was sure that
] had never before met met with this species,
and had some hope OF its being new to sci
ence. The Pangolin genus Mdnis of Zoolo-
gsts) to which il belongs is a very singular
group of animals. They are ant-eaters, like
the Mgrmecophdga OF South America, being
like them quite destitute OF teeth, and having
a long extensile tongue, the extremity OF
which is covered with a glutinous secretion
by means of which they catch their prey
But, while the South American antreaters are
clothed with hair, like ordinary mammalian
animals, the pangolins have an armor OF large
scales, implanted in the skin of the upper
surface OF the body from the head to the tip
of the tail, and imbricated or overlapping,
like the states on the roof Of a house. The
animals look, at first sight, like curious heavy
bodied lizards, but they have warm blood, and
nourish their young like the rest Of the mann
malta. L8y N8Gti -fN gUAAlIGl
The ipi lives in burrows In the earth, OF
sometimes in the, large hollows. OF colossal
trunks of trees which have fallen to the
ground The burrows that l saw were in
light soil on the slope of a hill. There are
two holes to each gallery, one for entrance ami
the other for exit. This is necessary, ON ac-
count of the animal being quite incapable OF
cqrvIng its body sideways, so that it cannot
turn itself in it's burrow. The bodies of pan
collins are very flexible Uerticaliy, that is, they
car roll themselves UP into a ball, and coil
and uncoil themselves very readily, but they
cannot turn round within the confined limits
OF their burrows. In hunting them we had
first to ascertain, by the footmarks, or more
readily by the marks left by the tial of the
tail, which was the entrance and which the
exit of the burrow, and then, making a trap
at one end, drive them out by the smoke OF
fire at the other; atterward securing them
with ropes. The freshness OF the tracks told
lis that the animal had entered its burrow the
previous evening; for must add that the ipi
is nocturnal in its habits, sleeping in its bur-
row throughout the day. When it wanders
at night the natives say they can hear the rat
Ting of its large scales.
A long and wearisome days hunt produced
no fruit. We wandered over hill and dale
through the forest and streams, leaving the
beaten paths, and struggling for hours through
the tangled maze, with no other result than
to tear our clothes to rags, and cover our
selves with scratches from the thOrns and cut
ting edges of sword like grasses which grew
in many places. nevertheless persevered,
searching the whole country for many miles
round, and had, at any rate, the melancholy
satisfaction of feeling that 1 was hardening
myself for any amount of endurance that
might be required in my future explorations.
At length, ON the 9TH OF March, was reward
ed by finding Two specimens, an adult female
and young one; the skins and skeletons Of
both l preserved and afterward sent to the
British Museum. The adult measured about
four feet and half from the head to the tip
of the tail The flesh of the ipi is good eat
ing. Those that l captured were very lean,
but was informed by the natives that they
are sometimes very lat. 1 found, on dissec-
ton, nothing but the remains of ants in their
stomachs. The tail is very thick. and makes
large track on the ground in walking. 2