alk of the nose of a greyhound. It would be a "pug" in
comparison! That of this animal was full twice as long, and not half so
thick, with a little mouth not over an inch in size, and without a
single tooth! It was certainly the oddest snout Leon had ever seen.
The legs, too, were remarkable. They were stout and thick, the hinder
ones appearing much shorter than the fore-legs; but this was because the
creature in its hind feet was _plantigrade_, that is, it walked with the
whole of its soles touching the surface, which only bears and a few
other sorts of quadrupeds do. Its fore-feet, too, were oddly placed
upon the ground. They had four long claws upon each, but these claws,
instead of being spread out, as in the dog or cat, were all folded
backward along the sole, and the creature, to avoid treading on them,
actually walked on the sides of its feet! The claws were only used for
scraping up the ground, and then it could bring them forward in a
perpendicular position, like the blade of a hoe, or the teeth of a
garden-rake. Of course, with feet furnished in such an out-of-the-way
fashion, the animal moved but slowly over the ground. In fact it went
very slowly, and with a stealthy pace.

Although Leon had never seen the creature before, he had read about it,
and had also seen pictures of it. He knew it, therefore, at a glance.
That proboscis-looking snout was not to be mistaken. It could belong to
no other creature than the _tamanoir_, or _great ant-eater_, by the
people of South America called the _ant-bear_ (_Myrmecophaga jubata_).
It was, in fact, that very thing; but to Leon's astonishment, as soon as
it got fairly out of the bushes, he noticed a singular-looking hunch
upon its back, just over the shoulder. At first he could not make out
what this was, as he had never heard of such a protuberance, besides,
the tail half hid it from his view. All of a sudden the animal turned
its head backwards, touched the hunch with its snout, gave itself a
shake, and then the odd excrescence fell to the ground, and proved to be
a young ant-eater, with bushy tail and long snout, the "very image of
its mother." The large one was thus seen to be a female that had been
carrying her infant upon her shoulders.

It was close to one of the ant-hills where the old tamanoir placed her
young upon the ground, and turning away from it, she approached the
great cone. Erecting herself upon her hind-feet, she stood with the
fore one