154 VIEW OF THE FAUNA OF BRAZIL 



men destroy them as being injurious to their maize, gourds, 

 &c., while those which I kept in my house ^ invariably 

 showed an aversion to all such vegetable productions ; but 

 on the other hand, exhibited an extraordinary predilection for 

 putrid flesh, as well as a remarkable skill in managing it. 

 When the morsel is too large to be swallowed whole, they 

 take it between the front teeth, and then work it with the 

 claws of the fore-feet with such incredible rapidity, that in a 

 moment it is riven asunder, and thus swallowed piecemeal. 

 I have always found in the stomachs of those that 1 have 

 examined, numerous remains of insects, particularly beetles 

 and Scolopendras ; together with a fine pulp, the nature of 

 which I have not been able to determine. Hence we see 

 that the modern armadillos are insectivorous and carnivorous : 

 and in truth, the masticating surface of their teeth seems 

 much better adapted to cut their food than to grind it. In the 

 fossil species the upper jaw has eight teeth on each side, 

 and the lower nine ; of these, the two front in the upper jaw, 

 and the three front in the lower, are incisors. The latter 

 are shaped like small cylinders of a more or less reniform 

 section ; while the molars are very large, and compressed 

 longitudinally, so that their section resembles an elonga- 

 ted kidney. Their lateral surface is marked with several 

 canaliculated impressions, and their grinding surface pre- 

 sents two projections, the effect of the indentation of the 

 teeth of the opposed jaw. In other respects it is flat, or even 

 a little hollowed in the middle, as in the sloths ; so that in 

 all the principal points, these teeth are constructed on the 

 same plan as those of a Megalonyx, and are evidently suited 

 to grind, and not to cut: hence we may conclude, with a 

 high degree of probability, that vegetable substances were 

 their appointed food. I propose the name of Chlamydothe- 

 Hum for this extinct genus ; and to the species which is as 

 yet the best known, I would venture to add the name of the 

 first modern naturalist, by calling it Chlam. Humholdtii. Its 

 length, from the point of the snout to the root of the tail, is 

 six feet; its size, therefore, is double that of the largest 

 existing armadillo, or about equal to that of the tapir. 



I have found, also, the remains of another species, though 

 much less fi-equently than the above, which I have named 

 Chlam. giganteum, on account of its vast size, in which it 

 was certainly not inferior to the Rhinoceros ; and it surpasses 

 all I have yet discovered of the entire order Bruta. 



» This was the case even with the a:enus Dasypus^ Wagl., to which the 

 opposite of such habits is usually attributed. 



