274 NATURALIST'S CABINET. 



Observations. 



CHAP. IX. 



" With shelly armour cloth'd instead of hair. 

 The banded armadillo, when attack'd, 

 Bolls dowu the precipice, and falls unhurt." 



ANON 



THE ARMADILLO. 



IN this singular quadruped nature seems to de- 

 viate from her characteristic uniformity, by co- 

 hering it with a shell, r rather- -a number of 

 shells, forming a complete coat of armour, in- 

 stead of hair: it should seem that she has re- 

 served all the wonders of her power for those re- 

 mote and thinly inhabited countries where the 

 men are savage, and the animals various; and in 

 proportion as she retires from human inspection 

 she becomes more extraordinary* But the fact 

 is, that wherever mankind are polished or thickly 

 planted, they soon exterminate those crude and 

 iwonstrous productions which in a manner en- 



