EDENTATA. 163 



the two extremities of the vertebral column are not 

 alternately raised and lowered as in the bounding 

 Leopard ; but the back preserves its uniform level, 

 however rapid may be the motion of the limbs."* 



Mr. Water ton says that the Armadillo " burrows 

 in the sand like a rabbit. As it often takes a con- 

 siderable time to dig him out of his hole, it would be 

 a long and laborious business to attack each hole 

 indiscriminately, without knowing whether the ani- 

 mal were there or not. To prevent disappointment, 

 the Indians carefully examine the mouth of the hole, 

 and put a short stick down it. Now, if on intro- 

 ducing this stick, a number of mosquitoes come out, 

 the Indians know to a certainty that the Armadillo 

 is in it : wherever there are no mosquitoes in the 

 hole, there is no Armadillo. The Indian having 

 satisfied himself that the Armadillo is there, imme- 

 diately cuts a long and slender stick, and introduces 

 it into the hole ; he carefully observes the line the 

 stick takes, and then sinks a pit in the sand to catch 

 the end of it: this done, he puts it further in 

 the hole, and digs another pit, and so on, till at 

 last he comes up with the Armadillo, which had 

 been making itself a passage in the sand till it had 

 exhausted all its strength through pure exertion. 

 I have been sometimes three quarters of a day in 

 digging out one Armadillo, and obliged to sink half 

 a dozen pits, seven feet deep, before I got up to it. 

 The Armadillo swims well in time of need, but does 

 not go into the water by choice. "f 



* W. C. L. Martin, Quad. p. 64. t Wanderings, p. 179. 



