21G CRUSOE'S ISLAND. 



spades it is next to impossible to unearth one. It is 

 wary too, as well as strong, and frequently, while the 

 pursuer is hard upon its heels, the armadillo will sud- 

 denly counter upon him and dig back again and bur- 



The armadillo. Rolled up. 



row beneath the loose earth thrown out in digging, 

 thus completely outflanking the expectant digger ! 



Notwithstanding its skill in eluding the hunter, 

 Thomas Ned soon had a pen full of armadillos and 

 agoutis, over which he used to linger much of his 

 spare time — not so much, I fear, from love of the 

 animals themselves, as of their flesh in prospective 

 banquet. The armadillo was not an obtrusive or 

 troublesome animal, as its food was mainly insectiv- 

 orous — beetles, grubs, worms — which it hunted by 

 night and retired to digest in its hole by day. 



I told Thomas Ned about the great armadillo that 

 used to roam the forests of South America in the qua- 

 ternary period, and perhaps once inhabited this very 

 island : the gigantic glyptodon, with its shell as big as 

 a hogshead and body the size of an ox. He would 

 believe anything I told him, generally, but this rather 



