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NATURAL HISTORY. 



Sub-family b. Dasypina. 

 DASYPUS. (Gr. Aacrt>c, haiiy ; -trove, a foot.) 



Sexcinctus (Lat. six-banded), the Armadillo. 



be forced from their refuge by smoke or water. The natives 

 and colonists consider them great delicacies when roasted in 

 their shells. 



The Armadillos are all small except the Gigantic Armadillo, 

 which is well described in the following extract. " I found 

 that an Armadillo of gigantic size had caused the commotion. 

 It was lying a round, misshapen mass, its head partly buried 

 under its armour, the feet drawn together, and its body pierced 

 by numerous arrows. It offered not the slightest resistance to 

 its tormentors, whom I desired to end its sufferings by a heavy 

 stroke of a club. Two men were required to carry it, and 

 Mr. Schomburgh estimated its weight at from 110 to 120 

 pounds ; its height was about three feet, its length five and a 

 half. Its tail was about fourteen or sixteen inches long, and 

 its root nearly as thick as a man's thigh, tapering very ab- 

 ruptly. The middle one of the five toes of the fore foot was 

 seven and a half inches in length. In size it greatly surpasses 

 the largest Giant Armadillo known (Dasypus giganteus, 

 Desm.), though Mr. Schomburgh does not mean to assert it is 

 a different species from the giganteus ; yet its enormous size 

 will attract the attention of naturalists and geologists to the 

 fossil genera." 



