Volume 5

Natural history, general and particular / by the Count de Buffon, translated into English. Illustrated with above 300 copper-plates, and occasional notes and observations. By William Smellie.

  • Buffon, Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de, 1707-1788.
Date:
1785
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Natural history, general and particular / by the Count de Buffon, translated into English. Illustrated with above 300 copper-plates, and occasional notes and observations. By William Smellie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    151/590 (page 117)
    (| hs A pi an om, Lh : : x TOTHENEW WORLD. m7 &c. He has alfo an open gland on the lower part of his back, which difcharges a fetid liquor. | He is, therefore, a {pecies different from that of _thehog; and neither the tajacou, the cabiai, nor _ the tapir, are found in any part of the Old Con- ’ tinent. The fame thing may be {aid of the “ tamandua-guacu ot ouariri *, and of the ouati- -riouT, which we have called ant-caters. Thefe ‘animals, the largeft of which is below mediocri- ty, feem to be peculiar to South America. Their flrudure is very fingular ; they have no teeth; ‘their tongue is long and cylindrical, like that of the birds called woodpeckers; the opening of the mouth is fo fmall, that they can neither bite nor hardly lay hold of any thing; but extend their long tongue, and, putting it in the way of the ants, retract it when loaded with thefe in- fe&s, which is the only method they have of procuring nourifhment. » The floth +, which the natives of Brafil call | ai or bai, on account of the plaintive cry az, which it perpetually utters, feems likewife to be -peculiar to the New Continent. He is fill {mailer than any of the former, being only about two feet long. He is remarkable for walking flower than the turtle, for having three toes both | Hi 3 on * Tamandua-guacu, five major; Pijon. Hif. Nat. p. 320. Le Fourmiller-tamanoir ; Brifon, Regn. animal. p. 24. + Tamandua minor flavefcens, ouatiriouaou ; Barrere, hifi. Fr. equin. p. 163. KS + Ai ou Parefleux; Defmarchais, tom. 3. p. 300 Ouaikaré ; Barrere, Hift. Fr. equity ps 154 is