770 THE PICHICIAGO. 
Tatu. It is found in the open country, and is a good burrower. The natives seek it on 
account of the flesh, which is tender and well flavoured. In Messrs. Audubon and 
Buchanan's well-known work, is the following account of the Peba: “The Armadillo is 
not a fighting character, but, on the contrary, is more peaceable than even the opossum 
which will at times bite in a sly and treacherous manner quite severely. 
A friend of ours, who formerly resided in South America, had a pet Armadillo in his 
bed-chamber, where it generally remained quiet during the day, but in the dark hours was 
active and playful. One night after he had gone to bed, the Armadillo began dragging 
about the chairs and some boxes that were placed round the room, and continued so busily 
engaged at this occupation that our friend could not sleep. He at length arose and struck 
a light, when, to his surprise, he found that boxes which he had supposed too heavy 
for such an animal to stir, had been moved and placed together, so as to form a sort of 
den or hiding-place in a corner, into which the animal retreated with great apparent 
satisfaction, and from whence it could only be drawn out after a hard struggle, and the 
receipt of some severe strokes from its claws. 
But, in general, the Armadillo does not evince any disposition to resent an attack, and, 
in fact, one of them, when teased by apet parrot, struck out with its claws only till pressed 
by the bird, when it drew in its head and feet, and, secure in its tough shell, yielded, 
without seeming to care much about it, to its noisy and mischievous tormentor, until the 
parrot left it to seek some less apathetic and more vulnerable object.” 
THE little PrcHey ARMADILLO (Tuttista miniita) is only fourteen inches in length, the 
tail being four inches long. Like many of the African antelopes, it appears to be almost 
independent of water, and can live for months together without needing to drink. The 
food consists of various insects, small reptiles, and ‘several kinds of roots, from the latter 
of which articles it hardly obtains the needful supply of moisture. It is a very active 
and rapid burrower, sinking below the ground with such celerity, that if a man on horse- 
back sees a Pichey scrambling over the eround, and wishes to secure it, he can hardly 
leap from his steed and stoop to take it up, before it has burrowed out of his reach. 
It also endeavours to escape observation by crouching closely to the ground, as if it were a 
stony pebble or lump of earth, Another example of the Armadillos is the Tarouay 
(Xentirus unicinctus). This animal is mostly remarkable for the undefended state of its 
tail, which is devoid of the bony rings that encirele the same member in the other 
Armadillos, and is only supplied with a coating of brown hair. For about three inches of 
the extremity the under side of the tail is not even furnished with hair, but is quite naked, 
with the exception of a few rounded scales. 
THE last and largest of these animals is the Tarou, or GIANT ARMADILLO (Priodonta 
gigas). 
This creature measures more than four feet six inches in length, the head and body 
being rather more than three feet long. It is as good a burrower as its relatives, and 
is so keen in its scent after the food which it loves, that the inhabitants of the same 
country are forced to line the graves of their departed friends with boards, in order to 
prevent the Tatou from exhuming and devouring them. The teeth are very yemarkable, 
there being from sixteen to eighteen small molars on each side of the j jaws. The tail is 
about seventeen inches long, and tapers gradually to a point from the base, at which spot 
it is nearly ten inches in circumference. This member is covered with regularly graduating 
horny rings, and when dried and hollowed, is used as a trumpet by the Botocudos. The 
Tatou is found in Brazil and Surinam. 
NEARLY related to the armadillos is the remarkable little animal called the PicHicraco 
(Chlamydéphorus truncatus), a native of Chili, which looks like a mixture of the mole and 
the armadillo. 
The top of the head, the back, and the hind quarters of the Pichiciago are covered with 
a shelly plate, which runs unbroken to the haunches, over which it dips suddenly, looking 
as if the creature had been chopped short by the blow of a hatchet, and a piece of shell 
