Information respecting Botanical Travellers. 33 



up, and parts of it were already boiling in the pots of the Indians, 

 not for the purpose of eating it, as the Macusi abhors the flesh of 

 this species of Armadillo, but for the sake of extracting its fat or oily 

 substance. 



T estimated its weight from 1 10 to 120 lbs.*, its height about 3 feet, 

 its length 51 feet. Its tail was about 14 to 16 inches in length, and 

 its root nearly as thick as a man's thigh, tapering very abruptly. 

 The fore foot had five toes, the middle one of which was 7-^ inches 

 in length. These are the only details which I can offer of a species 

 which in its size surpasses the largest giant Armadillo known 

 {Dasypus giganteus, Desm.). As far as I recollect, the head was 

 comparatively small ; but as I intended to have it inspected more 

 closely on my return, I have mentioned only such circumstances as 

 have fixed themselves in my memory, and which I wrote down after my 

 intentions were frustrated by the Indians. I cannot pretend to as- 

 sert that it is a different species from Dasypus giganteus, but its 

 enormous size will attract the attention of naturalists and geologists 

 to the fossil genera, which if compared with the existing species 

 will not offer so great a difference in size. The Macusi Indians in 

 our train named it Maouraima, the Wapisianas Marura, the War- 

 raus Okaiye, the Arawaaks Iassi o hara. 



I possess from Mr. Vieth, the following note of a species which I 



do not doubt was the Dasypus giganteus. " I stuffed at Devonshire 



Castle Plantation in Demerara, an Armadillo which weighed 701bs., 



but I did not take its dimensions ; and eight years having since 



elapsed, the present description is entirely from memory. The shell 



may have been 2 feet to 2-^ feet long, and its total length about 5 



feet, of which the tail was about 2 feet. The shell was very thick 



and hard, covered with scales of different shape. On the belly and 



those parts where it was without scales, were a few scattered hairs ; 



the claws on the fore feet were very long and strong. The tail, 



which was covered with the same kind of coat of mail as the back, 



was about 3 inches in diameter, at the root gradually tapering to a 



point. The back and all those parts which had the scaly covering 



were of a horn colour ; the under part, which was without scales, 



whitish. As it was killed by Negroes near the coast I could not 



procure the Indian name." 



The third species in size is the Dasypus encoubert, Desm. with six 



or seven bands. It appears to be very common at the savannahs 



which extend between the rivers Berbice and Demerara. 



* Two men were required to carry it when they took it to our halting 

 place. 



Ann. Nat. Hist. Vol.5. No. 28. March 1840. d 



