USO FAMILY I.OUICXTA ;- ARMADILLO, CIILA.M Yl'IIOUCS. 



but they will feed on succulent roots, fallen fruits, and other 

 soft vegetable substances, and even on carrion when it falls in 

 their way ; they also greedily devour small lizards and serpents, 

 and the eggs of birds which build upon the ground. Those 

 which live near the Pampas, glut themselves on the half-putrid 

 carcases of the wild cattle, which are slaughtered for the sake of 

 their skins and tallow ; and becoming extremely fat upon this 

 diet, they are esteemed great delicacies (roasted whole in their 

 shells), not onlv bv the Indians, but also by the Spanish and Por- 

 tuguese 1 Americans. Numerous other species exist; but they arc 

 all confined to South America. The largest at present existing 



O I 5 



is the d)'i'((t Armadillo, which inhabits Brazil and the Northern 

 parts of Paraguay ; this, although 3 feet 3 inches from the nose 

 to the origin of the tail, must have been a pi<_ r my in comparison 

 with the gigantic Glijptodon, a fossil species, of whose armour 

 a nearly complete specimen is contained in the Museum of the 

 College of Surgeons, London. 



248. In South America, also, is found another very remark- 

 able animal, named the Chlam't/phorus truncahm, or Pichiciago ; 

 in which several characters of different tribe* are remarkably 

 blended. Like the Armadillo, it has a toselated shield ; the 

 consistence of which is not bonv, however, beinof between horn 

 and leather. This shield commences on the head, and extends 

 over the back and haunches, dipping abruptly down over the 

 latter, so as to look as if the bodv were cut off there (whence 

 the specific name of the animal i< derived) ; it is divided by inter- 

 secting furrows into a series of bauds or strips, each of which 

 is made up of a row of square plates ; but instead of being 

 firmly attached by its whole uuder-surfaee to the integuments 

 beneath (as is the ease with that of the Armadillo), it is con- 

 nected with the back only by a rid^e of skin alono; the spine, 

 and with the skull by two bony prominences from the forehead. 

 The sides and under surface of the body are covered with fine 

 silky hair, like that of the Mole ; to which animal it bears a 

 strong resemblance al-o, in the form of its fore-feet, in the im- 

 pi-rfrcfion of it< eyes (which are not visible externally), in the 

 conical form of its snout, and in its general habits of life. It is 



