Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume I.djvu/23

AARD-VARK (orycteropus capemis), a plantigrade animal of the class mammalia, order edentata, peculiar to Africa, and extremely common in the southern part of that continent, especially in the Cape Colony, where it is called aard-vark or earth pig. It was formerly classed with the myrmecophaga, or ant-eaters.

The aard-vark is more closely allied in anatomical structure and in its dental system to the armadillos than to any other class of animals, although it has not their defensive armor. It has neither incisors nor canine teeth, and its molars are different in structure from those of any other quadruped ; they have no roots, and, like the tusks of the elephant and the incisors of the gnawing animals, are constantly increased by the deposit of new bony matter at the base to compensate for the continual wear at the extremity. It has large, flat feet, hollow on the under side, with powerful claws, the toes, four in front and five behind, gradu- ally diminishing outward from the interior and second, corresponding to the fore and index fingers of the human hand. This structure gives it great facilities for digging the burrows in which it lives, and for excavating the hills of the great ants, on which it feeds exclusively, as do the pangolins of Asia, the myrmecophaga of America, and the echidna of Australia. At first sight, the aard-vark resembles a small, short-legged pig. Its length, when full-grown, exclusive of the tail, is about 3 feet 5 inches, its head 11 inches, its ears 6 inches, and its tail 1 foot 9 inches. Its head is long and at- tenuated, its upper jaw projecting beyond the lower ; its mouth small ; its tongue long, slen- der, and flat, unlike the cylindrical organ of the myrmecophaga, nor capable of so great protrusion, but, like theirs, covered with gluti- nous saliva, which firmly retains the ants with which it comes in contact. Its ears are long, erect, and pointed ; its eyes of moderate size, two thirds nearer to the brow than to the snout. Its body is thick and corpulent, the limbs short and very strong. The skin is gen- erally bare, but thinly scattered with a few stiff, reddish-brown hairs, which are more nu- merous on the hips and thighs than on the other parts of the body. The tail is nearly naked, very thick at the base, but tapering to a sharp point at the end. The aard-vark is a very timid, inoffensive animal, burrowing in the ground, if pursued, so rapidly as to get wholly out of sight in the space of a few min- utes, and working inward with such power and quickness that it is impracticable to dig him out. It is nocturnal in its habits and in its hours of feeding, and becomes exceedingly fat. Its flesh is wholesome, and its hams, salted and dried, are good eating. AARD-WOLF (earth wolf; proteles Lalan- dii, viverra cristata), a singular quadruped, of the digitigrade carnivorous mammalia, first brought from Caffraria by the traveller Dela- lande. To the external appearance and osteo- logical structure of the hyena it unites the head and feet of the fox, and the intestines of the civet. It has five toes on the fore feet, the interior one of which is situated high above the others, and does not touch the ground, and but four behind. Its fore legs are much longer than the hind ones, which makes it compara- tively slow in its motions. In size it is about equal to a full-grown fox, which it also resem- bles in its pointed muzzle ; but it stands much higher on its legs, while its ears are larger and more naked, and its tail shorter and not so bushy. It has a coarse, stiff mane, which runs along the whole of its neck and back, and is erectile when the animal is enraged. Its gen- eral color is pale ash, with a slight tinge of yellowish brown; the muzzle is black, and nearly naked, with the exception of a few stiff moustaches. Around its eyes, and on each side of the neck, are dark brown transverse marks, and on the body are eight or ten simi- lar bands, the arms and thighs being barred with the same color. Its legs and feet are dark brown behind, and gray on the inner sur- face. The long hairs of the mane are gray, with two bands of black, the latter occupying the tips ; those of the tail, which are equally stiff, are of the same color. The ears are brown without, and gray internally. In habits it resembles the fox, constructing burrows, in which it sleeps during the day, going abroad and feeding only by night. It is timid, inof- fensive, and shy in its habits, but many individ- uals are ordinarily found residents of the same burrow, which has always several apertures for escape. It is said to run very fast, in spite of the excessive length of its fore legs. AARGAU (Fr. Argovie), a Swiss canton, bound- ed by Zurich, Zug, Lucerne, Bern, Soleure, Basel, and the Ehine, which separates it from Baden ; area, 542 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 198,873.