An Armadillo 



Trouble with Two Tatus 



John C. Branner 



Professor of Geology and Ex- President of Stanford University. 



The most fun and the liveliest time I ever had with pet animals 

 was experienced within the space of eighteen hours passed in 

 company with a couple of armadillos, or tatus, as the Brazilians 

 call them. 



I was living in Brazil at the time, and bought a pair of half 

 grown tatus of a countryman who offered them for sale at a rail- 

 way station up country in the State of Bahia. The animals were 

 securely enclosed in a stout box, and the owner told me they had 

 been captured when very small, that they had been brought up in 

 his own house, and that they were perfectly tame, and harmless, 

 that they made very interesting pets, and when I got tired of them 

 as pets, I would find them very good to eat. Though I had often 

 seen such animals, most of them had been killed before I saw them, 

 and I knew but little of their habits. When I first saw these two 

 they seemed to be rather sleepy, but the owner assured me that 

 they would be more lively and show off to better advantage as 

 night approached. Subsequent events more than bore out his 

 statement. 



The box in which they dozed reached the house I was occupying 

 at that time, and I at once had them out so as to get better ac- 

 quainted with them. Being but half-grown they were hardly 

 bigger than full grown squirrels, and for half an hour I felt that 



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