ARMADILLOS. 215 



by its shorter muzzle, and by the absence of the backward prolongation of the 

 nasal passage on the palate, to which allusion has been already made. The lower 

 jaw is less widely removed from the ordinary type. Another peculiarity in the 

 skeleton is the presence of well-developed collar-bones ; and it may also be noted 

 that the ribs are so extraordinarily wide as to come nearly in contact with one 

 .another, and thus render the bony casing of the body well-nigh continuous. 

 Distribution and The two-toed ant-eater is an exclusively arboreal animal, with a 

 Habits. somewhat restricted geographical range. It inhabits Northern Brazil, 

 Guiana, and Peru, between the 10th parallel of south and the 6th parallel of north 

 latitude, and it also extends into Central America ; its range thus including the 

 very hottest portions of the continent. In the mountains it ascends to an elevation 

 of some two thousand feet above the sea. It is either a rare creature, or one but 

 seldom seen, even by the natives ; frequenting the thickest portions of the forests, 

 and escaping observation through its arboreal habits and diminutive size. Like 

 its larger relatives, it leads, except during the pairing-season, a solitary existence ; 

 and it is likewise nocturnal, sleeping during the day among the boughs. Its 

 movements are generally slow and deliberate ; but when so disposed, it can climb 

 quickly, always with the aid of the tail. Ants, termites, bees, wasps, and their 

 larvae, are its food. When it has captured a large insect, it sits up on its haunches 

 like a squirrel, and conveys the prey to its mouth with its paws. Bates had one 

 of these ant-eaters brought to him which had been captured while slumbering 

 in a hollow tree. He kept it in the house for twenty-four hours, where " it 

 remained nearly all the time without motion, except when irritated, in which case 

 it reared itself on its hind-legs from the back of a chair to which it clung, and 

 clawed out with its fore-paws like a cat. Its manner of clinging with its claws, 

 and the sluggishness of its motions, gave it a great resemblance to a sloth. It 

 uttered no sound, and remained all night on the spot where I had placed it in 

 the morning. The next day I put it on a tree in the open air, and at night it 

 escaped." 



THE ARMADILLOS. 

 Family DASYPODIDJE. 



The armadillos, together with their near ally the pichiciago, constitute a well- 

 defined South American family distinguished from other living mammals by the 

 development of a number of bony plates in the skin, so as to form a more or less 

 complete shield enveloping the body ; and it is from the presence of this bony cuirass 

 that the members of the family derive their distinctive Spanish title of armadillos. 

 In general the bony shield of the back is formed by the union of quadrangular 

 or many-sided plates, and is divided into an anterior and posterior solid portion, 

 separated by a series of movable transverse bands, varying in number from three 

 to thirteen. The anterior shield, into which the head and fore-limbs may be more 

 or less completely withdrawn, is termed the scapular shield ; while the posterior 

 portion, which is notched for the tail, is known as the lumbar, or pelvic shield. 

 The movable bands are composed of parallel rows of similar plates connected 

 together by flexible skin ; and in some cases the degree of flexibility in this region 



