222 EDENTATES. 



Both the peludo and the weasel-headed armadillo are hunted for 

 the sake of their flesh, with dogs specially trained for the purpose. 

 A moonlight night is generally selected for the pursuit; and the hunter arms 

 himself with a stout cudgel, pointed at one end. As soon as the armadillo perceives 

 the dog, it either makes straight for its burrow, or endeavours to bury itself by 

 digging a hole where it stands. If the dog come up with the creature before it 

 gain its retreat, its fate is sealed. As the carapace affords no hold, the dog generally 

 seizes the armadillo by the head, or a paw, and holds it till the arrival of his 

 master, by whom it is despatched with a blow on the head from his stick. A 

 specially clever dog will, however, endeavour to overthrow the armadillo as it 

 runs by thrusting his nose under the edge of the, carapace. The creature is then 

 promptly seized by the soft under-parts, and soon killed; the teeth of the dog 

 crunching up the edges of the carapace as readily as an egg-shell is crushed 

 in the hand. 



Broad-Banded The tatouay, or broad-banded armadillo (Lysiurus unicinctus), 



Armadillo. o f Surinam, Brazil, and Paraguay, is the best known representative of 

 a small genus distinguished from the last by the presence of twelve or thirteen 

 movable bands in the carapace, and likewise by the teeth. The latter are either 

 eight or nine in number on each side of both the upper and lower jaw, and are of 

 moderate size; while in the upper jaw the last of the series is placed considerably 

 in advance of the hinder extremity of the bony palate, instead of close to it, as in 

 the preceding group. The head has the same general form as in the six-banded 

 armadillos, with rather widely separated, large, and rounded ears; and by the 

 presence of from twenty to twenty-five teeth on each side of the jaws. The slender 

 tail, which is considerably shorter than the body, is nearly naked, except for a few 

 bony plates on its under-surface and near the tip. In the fore-foot the third toe 

 has a huge curved claw, much larger than that on either of the others ; the claws 

 of the first and second toes being slender. The hind-feet have short triangular nails, 

 of which the first is the shortest and the third the longest. The bones of the 

 armour are ornamented with an indistinct granular sculpture. Next to the under- 

 mentioned giant armadillo, the present species is the largest of the group. Its 

 habits are probably very similar to those of the six-banded armadillo, although 

 our information is somewhat scant on this point. 



By far the largest living member of the family is the giant 

 ' armadillo (Priodon gigas), from the forests of Surinam and Brazil, 

 which attains a length of nearly a yard from the tip of the snout to the root of the 

 tail, and is the sole representative of its genus. While agreeing with the broad- 

 banded armadillo in the number of five bands in the carapace, and the general 

 structure of its feet, this species is distinguished by the still greater relative 

 development of the third toe, and the small size of the claw of the fifth. It is 

 further characterised by the small size and elongated form of the head, on whicli 

 the ears are oval and rather small ; and by the tail, which is nearly equal in length 

 to the body, being covered with large scales arranged in spiral rows. There are ten 

 rows of plates in the scapular, and sixteen or seventeen in the pelvic shield. With 

 the exception of the head, tail, and a band on the sides, which are whitish, the 

 colour is blackish brown. The immensely powerful front claws of this armadillo 



