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Its head was in the air, its hind-legs were extended horizontally, its fore-legs were waving impotently up and down'. The ant-bear had carved its way deep into the bowels of the earth, gradually but relentlessly dragging the hapless pony down until its posterior parts hermetically sealed up the burrow.
Then they roused the nocturnal animals from their slumbers in the straw the wingless apteryx, like a little armless man with a very long nose; the huge misshapen earthy-looking ant-bear, and those four-footed Rip Van Winkles, the quaint, rusty, blear-eyed armadillos.
Though the good Duc went every year to the Abbey de la Trappe for the purpose of mortifying his sins and preserving his religion in so impious an atmosphere as the Palais Royal, he was not above flattery; and he expressed himself towards me with particular kindness after my speech. At court, one becomes a sort of human ant-bear, and learns to catch one's prey by one's tongue.
About two o'clock, however, just as they had started after a short outspan, a little incident occurred. Suddenly the Vilderbeeste's horse put his foot into an ant-bear hole and fell heavily, throwing his rider on to his head. He was up in a minute, but his forehead had struck against the jawbone of a dead buck, and the blood was pouring from it down his hairy face.
The huge hairy mass is the tail of the ant-bear, which serves it as a shelter from the rays of the noonday sun and from the deluges of the rainy season: spread out over its body, it is the sole covering it seeks, as it neither burrows, nor takes up its abode in the hollows of trees nor in artificial caves.
We may see the shaggy ant-bear tearing at the cones of sand-clay, and licking up the white termites; or we may behold the scaly armadillo crawling over the sun-parched earth, and rolling itself up at the approach of danger.
But the "aard-vark" is just as good an ant-eater as he, can "crack" as thick-walled a house, can rake up and devour as many termites as any "ant-bear" in the length and breadth of the Amazon Valley. He has got, moreover, as "tall" a tail as the tamanoir, very nearly as long a snout, a mouth equally small, and a tongue as extensive and extensile.
In this group we shall give the first place to the true ant-eaters, and first speak of the ant-eaters of America. Of these there are four well-known species, the great Ant-bear, or Tamanoir; the Tamandua, or little Ant-bear; another little ant-bear, the Ringed Tamandua; and a very small species that differs much from the other three.
He had twice appealed to the old woman, but she sat in her big chair with a sweet smile upon her fat face and refused to interfere. It is not every day that a Boer frau has the chance of seeing a real live English rooibaatje baited like an ant-bear on the flat.
Arrival at Cape Town Port Elizabeth First encounter with big game Grahamstown Severe thunderstorm King William's Town Natives and their ponies Social peculiarities Farming The annual trek Camp-life Surf-bathing Self-sacrificing attitude of Larry O'Toole Capture of an ant-bear The coast scenery A moral shock School Chief Toise Rainy seasons Flooded rivers
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