36t HISTOaY OF 



But the real fact is, that wherever mankind are polished, or 

 thickly planted, they soon rid the earth of these odd and half- 

 formed productions, that in some measure encumber the soil. 

 They soon disappear in a cultivated country, and continue to 

 exist only in those remote deserts where they have no enemies 

 but such as they are enabled to oppose. 



The armadillo is chiefly an inhabitant of South America ; 

 a peaceful, harmless creature, incapable of offending any other 

 quadruped, and furnished with a peculiai' covering for its own 

 defence. The pangolin, described above, seems an inactive, 

 helpless being, indebted for safety more to its patience than its 

 power J but the armadillo is still more exposed and helpless. 

 The pangolin is furnished with an armour that wounds while it 

 resists, and that is never attacked with impunity ; but the arma- 

 dillo is obliged to submit to every insult, without any power of 

 repelling its enemy ; it is attacked without danger, and is conse- 

 quently liable to more various persecutions. 



This animal being covered, like a tortoise, with a shell, or 

 rather a number of shells, its other proportions are not easily 

 discerned. It appears, at first view, a round misshapen mass, 

 with a long head, and a very large tail sticking out at either end, 

 as if not of a piece with the rest of the body. It is of different 

 sizes, from a foot to three feet long, and covered with a shell 

 divided into several pieces, that lap over each other like the 

 ])lalts in a coat of armour, or in the tail of a lobster. The differ- 

 ence in the size of this animal, and also the different disposition 

 and number of its plaits, have been considered as constituting so 

 many species, each marked with its own particular name. In 

 all, however, the animal is partially covered with this natural coat 

 of mail ; the conformation of which affords one of the most 

 striking curiosities in natural history. This shell, which in 

 every respect resembles a bony substance, covers the head, the 

 neck, the back, the sides, the rump, and the tail to the very 

 point. The only parts to which it does not extend, are the 

 throat, the breast, and the belly, which are covered with a white 

 soft skin, somewhat resembling that of a fowl stripped of its 

 feathers. If these naked parts be observed with attention, they 

 will be found covered with the rudiments of shells, of the same 

 substance with those which cover the back. The skin even in 

 the parts which are softest, seems to lave a tendency to ossify ; 



