354 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



THE ARMADILLO AND ITS ODDITIES. 



By CHARLES H. COE. 



THOSE who have seen the armadillo only in pictures, or stuffed 

 specimens in museums, can form but a slight idea how odd 

 and interesting the animal is in life. With an ardent love of 

 natural history, and with exceptional opportunities for indulging 

 my tastes in this direction, I have been the possessor of many pet 

 animals ; but none, I can truly affirm, have interested me more 

 by their odd forms and curious habits than a pair of armadillos. 



I named my armored pets Jack and Jill, for they are a perfect 

 pair, male and female, now nearly three years old. They were 

 brought from Brazil, having been captured there by men who 

 make it their business, with the aid of native hunters, to secure 

 rare forms of animal life for menageries, zoological gardens, and 

 private fanciers. 



So rarely are armadillos seen in captivity, and so little has 

 been written about them, that I am sure a reasonably full and 

 detailed description of the animal in general and my pets in 

 particular will prove interesting and instructive. 



The armadillo belongs to two different genera, known as Dasy- 

 pus and Tatusia, the former name being applied to several South 

 American species, and the latter to those which inhabit North 

 America. They all belong to the order Edentata, or toothless 

 animals, which order also includes the sloths and ant-eaters. All 

 these are characterized by the absence of front teeth, while the 

 molars or grinders are not true teeth, being without regular roots 

 or enamel. 



Long ages before man appeared upon the earth, as we learn 

 from fossil remains found in its strata, this order was represented 

 by gigantic forms now known as the glyptodon and the mega- 

 therium. The former, a huge creature sometimes thirteen feet 

 in length, was related to the armadillo, but its armor was in one 

 solid piece instead of plates and movable bands. The mega- 

 therium ("great beast"), a still more enormous animal of the 

 ancient world, was not covered with armor, but was nearly 

 allied to the sloth. It often attained a length of over eighteen 

 feet. 



The musical Spanish name armadillo, meaning "little armed 

 one," is applied to many species, from the smallest, no larger than 

 a rat, to the giant armadillo, which measures four and a half feet 

 in length from tip to tip, the tail being eighteen inches long. 



All the species are confined to the American continent, ranging 

 from southern Texas to the Argentine Republic. Some species 

 inhabit the low coasts of Peru and Chili, others the elevated 



