ORDER EDENTATA. 285 



to raise the body from the ground ; the nails are very 

 powerful, and organized for digging. 



We possessed very scanty information on these animals, 

 till D'Azara published his Essay on the Quadrupeds of Pa- 

 raguay, which includes eight species. He tells us that 

 most of them dig burrows in the earth, which they com- 

 monly direct under an angle of 45° ; but that they turn so 

 as to make it difficult to ascertain their length, which is 

 presumed, however, to be from six to eight feet. 



Some of the species have nocturnal habits, and are very 

 timid, flying to their burrow the moment they hear a noise. 

 These are very much quicker in their motions than might 

 be supposed, from the hindrances incident to their heavy 

 covering. Other species quit their retreat equally by day 

 and night, and these are said not to be so rapid in their 

 motions as the others. 



When the Armadillos are pursued, and find flight inef- 

 fectual, they withdraw the head under the edge of the 

 buckler of the shoulders ; their legs, except the feet, are 

 naturally hidden by the borders of the bucklers and the 

 bands; they then contract the body toward a spherical 

 form, so far as the stretching of the membrane which unites 

 the different moveable pieces of the armour will permit. 



Till the time of D'Azara, the idea was general that these 

 animals fed exclusively on vegetable matter ; that natu- 

 ralist, however, considers them as insectivorous, and even 

 carnivorous ; the character of their excrement in a natural 

 state indicates it. The directions of their burrows evince 

 that they pursue the Ant-heaps, and these insects quickly 

 disappear where they inhabit. Nobody doubts in Paraguay 

 that the largest species described by the Spanish naturalist 

 feeds on the carcasses of animals ; and the graves of the 

 dead which are necessarily buried at a distance from the' 

 usual places of sepulture, and in countries where the great 



Vol. III. X 



