ARMADILLOS. 355 



valley of the upper Sao Francisco, though it does not make as 

 many galleries as the tatu p6ba, we meet its burrows at every step. 

 It is also seen in more inhabited places, even in the environs of 

 Rio de Janeiro. 



" Thetatu-etd runs away with great speed, but not as swiftly as 

 the tatu peba. In the campos they disappear very quickly into 

 the numerous holes with which they have honey-combed the 

 ground. They are more nocturnal than diurnal, though often 

 appearing by day. I one day seized by the tail one of these 

 animals, who was beginning a hole to escape into. All my strength 

 was insufficient to drag him out, and it needed the aid of a strong 

 negro. The tatu p^ba is even stronger than the tatu-et6. 



" The tatu mirim (small tatu) which I mentioned just now is 

 also called by the Brazilians tatu de folhas (tatu of leaves), because 

 it lives in the woods in the midst of the dry leaves, under which 

 it hides, without digging burrows like the other tatus. . . . It is widely 

 spread over the province of Minas Geraes, but only in the forests, 

 and is not met with in the campos like the tatu-ete. Its length 

 is scarcely half that of the tatu-ete. . . . Colour, a leaden blackish- 

 grey. ... Its nails, according to Lund, are never dirty with the 

 argillaceous earth, like those of the other tatus. This fact con- 

 firms the statements of the natives, that it does not burrow. 



" Another species inhabiting the provinces of Rio de Janeiro, 

 Minas Geraes, and even the whole of Brazil as far as the Guiana, 

 also Paraguay, is the Tatuay of Azara, called also in Brazil Tatu de 

 rabo molle (tatu with a soft tail). It is the Dasypus unicindus or 

 D. duodecimocindus of Linnaeus, D. gymnurus of lUiger, and Xenurus 

 nundicaudus of Lund. Its habits are nearly identical with those 

 of the tatu-et^, but it inhabits forests in preference to the campos. 

 I saw a well-stufifed specimen of this species in the Rua do 

 Ouvidor, Rio de Janeiro, price eighty milreis. 



" Another tatu common in the north of Brazil is known in the 

 empire by the name of tatu bola (ball tatu), because it withdraws 

 its head and legs under the carapace and rolls into a ball, entirely 

 protected in this shape by its shell. I have seen this species in 

 the basin of the Sao Francisco, at the Villa-da-barra-do-Rio- 

 Grande ; but it is not met with in the southern parts of the basin- 

 It is common in the province of Piauhy. This species is the 



