CHAPTER XII. 



GIANT SLOTHS AND ARMADILLOS. 



" Injecta monstris terra dolet suis." 



Horace, Odes, book iii. 



It would have been strange, considering how much we owe 

 to North America, had the great South American continent not 

 enriched our knowledge of past forms of life on the globe. But 

 such is not the case. The honours are, as it were, divided, 

 although it must be admitted that the North American extinct 

 forms at present known are far more numerous. There are, 

 however, two or three " Extinct Monsters " of very great interest 

 which once had a home in South America — in that strange region 

 of the Pampas, where the naturalist of the present day finds so 

 much to excite his interest. Of these the present chapter treats. 



The Megatherium ^ (Cuvier) was a gigantic mammal allied to 

 sloths and ant-eaters, and perhaps to the armadillos. In its skull 

 and teeth this colossus of the past resembled the sloths, in its 

 limbs and backbone it resembled the ant-eaters, while in size it 

 surpassed the largest rhinoceros (Plate XVIL). The famous, but 

 imperfect, specimen at Madrid was for a long time the principal 

 if not the only source of information with regard to this extinct 

 genus, and for nearly a century it remained unique. 



Later on, however, the zeal and energy of Sir Woodbine 

 Parish, his late Majesty's charge-d'' affaires at Buenos Ayres, greatly 

 helped to augment the materials for arriving at a just conclusion 



' Greek — mcgas, great ; t/wrioii, beast. 



