1 6 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT. 



up, and they accordingly had their tails protected by a 

 coating of bony rings closely articulated together, or 



by a number of plates of 

 various sizes, as in Fig. 7. 

 Moreover, some of them had 

 a breast-plate on the under 

 surface of the body, of 

 which it is not very easy 

 to see the necessity, since 

 this aspect would not be 

 exposed to attack. The 



FIG. 7. End of sheath of tail of a nu nr e carapaces of these 

 Glyptodont, much reduced. 



Glyptodonts are often found 



on the Pampas, where they are said to be used as 

 shelters by the natives. One would have thought 

 that with such an armour the breed of Glyptodonts 

 would at least have lived as long as the puny arma- 

 dillos ; but their extinction in long past epochs repeats 

 the lesson that the race is not always to the swift, 

 nor the battle to the strong. 



Finally, as a last and very original type of mailed 

 animals, we must mention the scaly ant-eaters, or Pan- 

 golins (Fig. 8), of Africa and Asia, which (pursuing our 

 metaphor) appear to have come to the conclusion that 

 a bony-plate armour is much too heavy for such warm 

 climates, and have, therefore, adopted a light and 

 elegant scale-armour composed of overlapping brown, 

 horny scales, causing them to look much like an 

 elongated cone of a spruce-fir endued with life. Even, 

 however, this lighter and last type of armour does not 



