ant-eater uses its fore-feet as hands to carry food to its mouth. It
lives among the trees, and feeds upon wasps, bees, and especially the
larvae of both; but it does not use the tongue to any great extent. It
is, on this account, an essentially different sort of animal.

The little ant-eater is usually of a bright yellow colour, brownish on
the back; but there are many varieties in this respect, and some are of
a snowy whiteness. Its fur is soft and silky, sometimes slightly curled
or matted at the points, and the tail fur is annulated, or ringed, with
the prevailing colours of the body.

So much for the ant-bears of America.

CHAPTER XXVII.

THE ANT-LION.

Ants are disagreeable insects in any country, but especially so in warm
tropical climates. Their ugly appearance, their destructive habits, but,
above all, the pain of their sting, or rather bite--for ants do not
sting as wasps, but bite with the jaws, and then infuse poison into the
wound--all these render them very unpopular creatures. A superficial
thinker would suppose that such troublesome insects could be of no use,
and would question the propriety of Nature in having created them.

But when we give the subject a little attention, we find that they were
not created in vain. Were it not for these busy creatures, what would
become of the vast quantities of decomposing substances found in some
countries? What would be done with the decaying vegetation and the dead
animal matter? Why, in many places, were it not consumed by these
insects, and reorganised into new forms of life, it would produce
pestilence and death; and surely these are far more disagreeable things
than ants.

Of ants there are many different kinds; but the greatest number of
species belong to warm countries, where, indeed, they are most useful.
Some of these species are so curious in their habits, that whole volumes
have been written about them, and naturalists have spent a life-time in
their study and observation. Their social and domestic economy is of the
most singular character, more so than that of the bees; and I am afraid
here to give a single trait of their lives, lest I should be led on to
talk too much about them. I need only mention the wonderful nests or
hills which some species build--those great cones of twenty feet in
height, and so strong that wild bulls run up their sides and stand upon
their tops without doing them the least injury!

Others make their houses o