26 
ARMADILLO. 
ARMADILLO. 
( Dasypus peba.) 
The Armadillo, called also the Tatouhou, is confined in its geographical range to Guayana, 
Brazil, and Paraguay. It is about thirty inches in total length, the slender tapering tail being 
fourteen or fifteen inches long. Its color is dark brown and black. The armor, covering this 
animal, is a triangular or oval plate on the head, a large buckler on the shoulder, and a simi- 
lar one over the haunches ; while, over the middle of the body is a series of transverse bands, 
variable in number,* overlapping each other, and permitting the animal to move freely, and 
to roll up when it chooses. Each of these separate portions consists of a multitude of small 
part's consolidated together, presenting the appearance of mosaic-work. The tail is envel- 
oped by a series of rings ; and the skin of the under surface of the body is very rough, and 
beset with long scattered hairs. The muzzle is long, straight, and conical ; the tongue long, 
narrow, pointed, and extensible ; the teeth (all molars) fourteen in each jaw ; the ears large ; 
the eyes small ; the limbs short and thick ; and the feet covered by a hard, tuberculated skin. 
It burrows with great rapidity, dipping at an angle of 45 ; and is nocturnal in its habits. It 
runs with celerity, but in an odd manner. It goes scuttling along — automaton-like, no inflexion 
of the spine accompanying the movements of the limbs. The Armadillo sees indifferently, par- 
ticularly in bright weather ; but its senses of smell and hearing are very acute. Its food 
consists of fallen fruit, roots, worms, and carrion. It is hunted by the Indians, the Spaniards 
and the Portuguese by reason of the delicacy of its flesh. It is never found in the forest, but 
frequents the open and cultivated plains. 
In zoological catalogues the Armadillo is found under the ambiguous names of Dasypus septemcinctus, D. 
octocinctus, and D. novemcinctus , — three different species having been thus established on the erroneous suppo- 
sition that the number of immoveable bands was invariable in the same species. 
