MANIS, in natural history, a genus of Mammalia, of the order Bruta. Generic character : no teeth ; tongue round and extensile ; mouth narrowed into a snout ; body covered above with moveable bony scales. These animals greatly resemble the ant-eater, and feed like that creature by protruding their tongues into the nests of various species of insects, and retract ing them with inconceivable suddenness, with their prey attached to the tip. There are three species. M. tetradactyla, the long-tailed manis, has a tail more than twice the length of its body, and is of ten, in the whole, seen five feet long. Its colour is a dark-brown, with a tinge of yellow, and it displays a very brilliant gloss. It is perfectly covered, except on the belly, with large scales resembling the substance of horn, and which consti tute a complete defence fbr it against its enemies, on whose attack it rolls itself up into a form very nearly globular, present ing on every side impenetrable armour. It is a native of India.
Mavis pentadactyla, the short-tailed manis. This is much thicker and shorter
than the former, and is covered with scales still thicker and stronger. It is found in many parts of India, and, accord ing to some writers, in Africa, particu larly in Guinea. It moves with great slowness, but on imminent danger of at tack, rolls itself lip with the compactness of a ball, and defies, in this state, the at tempts even of some of the larger beasts of prey. It is called in some parts of In dia the thunderbolt, from the extreme hardness of its scales, which are said to elicit fire from iron, like a flint ; and in other parts it is named the stone-vermin, a quantity of stones being generally found in its stomach, supposed to be swallowed by it for the purpose of digesting its food. It frequents marshy and woody places, and lives almost entirely on insects, parti cularly on ants, It has been seen of the length of even six feet- See Mammalia, Plate XV, fig. 5.