jubata), was not uncommon here. After the first few weeks of
residence, I ran short of fresh provisions. The people of the
neighbourhood had sold me all the fowls they could spare; I had
not yet learned to eat the stale and stringy salt-fish which is
the staple food in these places, and for several days I had lived
on rice-porridge, roasted bananas, and farinha. Florinda asked me
whether I could eat Tamandua. I told her almost anything in the
shape of flesh would be acceptable; so the same day she went with
an old negro named Antonio and the dogs, and in the evening
brought one of the animals. The meat was stewed and turned out
very good, something like goose in flavour. The people at Caripi
would not touch a morsel, saying it was not considered fit to eat
in these parts; I had read, however, that it was an article of
food in other countries of South America. During the next two or
three weeks, whenever we were short of fresh meat, Antonio was
always ready, for a small reward, to get me a Tamandua. But one
day he came to me in great distress, with the news that his
favourite dog, Atrevido, had been caught in the grip of an ant-
eater, and was killed. We hastened to the place, and found the
dog was not dead, but severely torn by the claws of the animal,
which itself was mortally wounded, and was now relaxing its
grasp.

The habits of the Myrmecophaga jubata are now pretty well known.
It is not uncommon in the drier forests of the Amazons valley,
but is not found, I believe, in the Ygapo, or flooded lands. The
Brazilians call the species the Tamandua bandeira, or the Banner
Anteater, the term banner being applied in allusion to the
curious colouration of the animal, each side of the body having a
broad oblique stripe, half grey and half black, which gives it