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For example, in Europe, Asia, and Africa, the large mammals are at present rhinoceroses, hippopotamuses, elephants, lions, tigers, oxen, horses, &c.; and if you examine the newest tertiary deposits, which contain the animals and plants which immediately preceded those which now exist in the same country, you do not find gigantic specimens of ant-eaters and kangaroos, but you find rhinoceroses, elephants, lions, tigers, &c., of different species to those now living but still their close allies.
"Yes, they are ant-eaters' holes, and very dangerous; I have seen them several feet deep. If we do not start to-day, I will ask the Hottentots to try and procure one for me to-night, as I wish to have a stuffed specimen." "We do not intend to start till to-morrow morning," replied Alexander; "we must dismiss the Caffres to-night, that they may be also ready to go home to-morrow.
In place of the petty phalangers and pouched ant-eaters of the oolitic period, our tertiary strata in the larger continents show us a rapid and extraordinary development of the mammalian race into monstrous creatures, some of them now quite extinct, and some still holding their own undisturbed in India, Africa, and the American prairies.
Its fauna is now marked, for instance, by the presence of medium-sized deer and cats, fox-like wolves, and small camel-like creatures, as well as by the presence of small armadillos, sloths, and ant-eaters.
It dwells upon the banks of rivers, lakes, or marshes, burrows in the ground like a badger, swims and dives well, and feeds chiefly on aquatic insects. The echidna is altogether a different sort of creature, both in appearance and habits. It is, in reality, an ant-eater, with the body of a porcupine, having a long slender snout and an extensile tongue, just like that of other ant-eaters.
"Sponges, oysters, crabs, sturgeons, clams, toads, snakes, lizards, skunks, opossums, ant-eaters, baboons, negroes, wood-chucks, lions, Esquimaux, sloths, hogs, Hottentots, ourang-outangs, men and monikins, are, beyond a question, all animals.
First among the mammals we find the aplacentals, or those which bring forth immature young, which are grouped into two divisions, i.e., the monotremes, or one-vented animals, in which group belong the duck-bills, spiny ant-eaters, etc.; and the marsupials, or pouched animals, in which group belong the kangaroo, opossum, etc.
Many kinds of reptiles, both snakes and lizards, are ant-eaters; and, what is strangest of all, there are insects that prey upon them! No wonder, then, with such a variety of enemies that the ants are kept within proper limits, and are not allowed to overrun the earth.
"Thousands; and it would die of hunger if it had to take them one by one; but, thanks to the length of its tongue, it is enabled to pick up hundreds at a time." "What a very peculiar meal!" "Didn't you know that some Indians are ant-eaters? In the Terre-Froide, for instance, dishes are made of red ants' eggs, and there is one species which secretes a sweet liquid, of which children are very fond."
But indeed there are ways I think I would always be nice, however rich I was ways that don't affect me very much, so that they're no sacrifice. And he's seen lots of things. Sloths, which I always thought were just metaphors. And ant-eaters, and alligators, and jaguars. And " "If you go to London," said Mr. Mactavish James, "you'll be losing your heart to a keeper at the Zoo."
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