ARMADILILOS. 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 lkewise 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 
larvee, 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 DAs YPODID. 
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 
