THE MAMMALS 215 



live among trees in which they commonly move about 

 along the lower side of the branches, with their backs 

 downward. The armadillos have a peculiar, hard, 

 scaly armor. If threatened with danger the Armadillo 

 rolls up into a ball, like a pill bug, and then becomes quite 

 effectively protected by its horny covering. Most of the 

 armadillos live in South America, but the nine-banded 

 armadillo ranges from Paraguay to sou them Texas. The 

 ant eaters are ungainly creatures with long, narrow head 

 and slender extensile tongue. The giant ant eater 

 of South America may reach a length of seven feet, but 



PIG. 167. Nine-banded armadillo. 



this is mainly due to its long head and very long, bushy 

 tail. The creatures live upon ants, tearing open ant 

 hills with their strong claws and then throwing out their 

 long, sticky tongues among the disturbed insects which 

 adhere to it and are then drawn into the mouth. As the 

 tongue is worked with great rapidity the ant eater will 

 devour a populous community of ants in a short time. 



The odd lot of creatures which constitute the living 

 species of Edentates represent the few survivors of an 

 order of animals once numerous and widely distributed 

 over the earth's surface. One of the best known of the 

 fossil forms is the gigantic Megatherium of South America, 

 which reached a length of eighteen feet. The Glyptodon 

 which sometimes reached a length of twelve feet had a 

 solid rounded armor of bony plates resembling the shell 

 of a huge tortoise. 



