Émile Oustalet

“ Toward evening it quits this hiding-place and begins to move about, advancing either by leaps, or else with an unsteady gait, walking nearly always on the extremities of its digits. Whatever may have been written heretofore by naturalists, the orycteropus is in fact digitigrade rather than plantigrade. When the animal is walking the head is inclined, the snout nearly touching the ground, the ears laid half-way back, and the tail trailing. From time to time the animal stops to listen: it is guided principally by hearing and smell, and by the same means contrives to escape from its enemies. ”

“ On finding a path that has been traveled over by ants or termites, it follows it up to the ant-hill; having reached the latter, it attacks the structure with its paws, making the dust fly all around, and digging rapidly till it comes to the center, or at least to one of the principal streets. Then, alternately exserting and retracting its viscous tongue, it devours the ants by the thousands. Having made an end of one nest it attacks another, and so on till its hunger is appeased. ”

“ The tribe to which it belongs, that of the Hapalians, stands at the foot of the monkey series, at the head of which are the anthropoid apes. While the latter are remarkable for a stature nearly equal to that of the human species, a robust body without caudal appendage, and a voluminous brain with numerous convolutions, the Hapalians, on the other hand, in size do not surpass some of our Rodents. The body is rather slender, but covered with a heavy coat of hair, and terminated by a long tail; the brain is almost perfectly smooth. ”

“ The common Uistiti is, no doubt, familiar to our readers, for it is often imported into Europe. It has even reproduced in captivity, and many naturalists, as Cuvier, Pallas, and Audouin, have made some very interesting observations on it. The young ones, which are born with the eyes open, have a very large head, a dark-gray skin of pretty uniform color, excepting the tail, which plainly shows the rings. Immediately after birth they cling to their dam, who, however, does not seem to have any great affection for them, and turns them over to the male as soon as she feels tired ”

“ But this must be an exception, for, as a rule, in our menageries these little monkeys, despite all the care bestowed on them, have great difficulty in living through the winter season. They are fed mainly either on eggs, which they empty with much dexterity, or on fruit; the latter must be soft and sweet, for the Uistiti rejects almonds no less than acid fruits. Flesh meat has no attraction for them; and, when they seize with their hands a living bird, they first choke it to death and then tear open the cranium to get at the brain. ”

“ The orycteropi are extremely timid: at the slightest noise they try to get underground. If they find no suitable hole or crevice, then they quickly dig for themselves a hiding-place. The late J. Verreaux, who had many a time observed orycteropi at the Cape, has told me of how, having once seized by the tail one of them when it had got but half of its body underground, he could not get the animal out except by having the ground dug to a considerable depth. ”

“ The species of the genus Jacchus, all, without exception, are found in tropical America, between the Isthmus of Panama and latitude 30° south, but chiefly, if not exclusively, in the region lying to the east of the Andes, some of them inhabiting the virgin forests, others the thickets scattered over the plains. The best-known species is the common Uistiti (Hapale or Jacchus vulgaris) , with gray-russet pelt, with alternate red and blackish streaks, and with from fifteen to eighteen rings on the tail, a white, triangular spot on the forehead, and long white hairs on the sides of the head. ”

“ Then it begins to roam about its quarters, returning constantly to the stove, where it warms itself with evident pleasure while it squats on its hind legs and keeps its snout steadily pointed at the fire. ”

“ As will be seen from the accompanying figure, drawn from life, the orycteropus is, on the contrary, of heavy build, with arched back, like a pig, which animal it further resembles in that its skin is sparsely strewed with hairs. ”

“ In eastern Africa the negroes, approaching cautiously, kill the orycteropus by a sudden thrust of a lance before it has time to disappear. In Senegal, on the other hand, the animal is caught in iron traps, or hunted with dogs by night. The skin of the animal is thick, and makes good, strong leather. The flesh is by some travelers described as juicy, with a taste like that of pork; according to others it is disgusting, being strongly impregnated with ant-odor. ”

“ Now, we know that most of our domestic animals, and even certain highly-organized monkeys, while they manifest pleasure or rage at beholding their own images in a mirror, are nevertheless perfectly indifferent in the presence of the portrait, however life-like, of an animal of a different species. ”

“ As regards intelligence, the Hapalians appear to be far inferior to other monkeys, and in them the sense of touch in particular is poorly developed, the anterior members terminating in true feet, the digits of which are armed with claws, and the posterior members presenting only imperfect hands. The head is roundish; the flat face is animated with small but very bright eyes; the ears are often adorned with tufts of hair, which give an odd character to the physiognomy. Finally, the body is covered with a thick coat of soft, silken hair, often with regularly-arranged bands in the back and tail. ”

“ When we consider the alarming rate at which ants and termites multiply, and the damage they cause, we must recognize in the orycteropus one of the most efficient of man's auxiliaries in tropical regions. ”

“ The Old World, on the other hand, possesses only a few species, and Australia none at all, the part of the Edentata being in that strange country played by the Monotremata, Echidna, and Ornithorhynchi.
Some species of the Edentata are well known to our readers. The armadillo and the pangolin are common in our zoölogical gardens; the ant-eater and the sloth are to be seen there too, though far more rarely. ”

“ These three species are identical in their habits, of nearly the same size, 1·3 metre (about 512 feet) from the snout to the extremity of the skin, and of the same general form; they differ only in the proportions of the cranium and of the limbs, and in the color and appearance of the skin. Thus, in the Cape orycteropus, for instance, the surface of the body presents a scanty covering of straight, soft hairs, which are shorter on the back than on the belly. ”

“ The adult animals, though they are by nature timid, become attached to those persons who care for them, and, though they do not exhibit much intelligence, they nevertheless appear to be able to associate ideas. ”

“ Nevertheless, it may be said that these mammals bear in their skeleton and in the arrangement of their viscera certain signs of inferiority; that their salivary glands are highly developed, a fact accounted for by their insectivorous diet ”