NINE-BANDED ARMADILLO. 
223 
could not sleep. He at length arose and struck a light, when to his surprise 
he found boxes he had supposed greatly too heavy for such an animal to 
stir, had been moved and placed together so as to form a sort of den or 
hiding-place in a corner, into which the animal retreated with great appa- 
rent satisfaction, and from whence it could only be drawn out after a hard 
struggle, and the receipt of some severe strokes from its claws. But in 
general the Armadillo does not evince any disposition to resent an attack, 
and in fact one of them when teased by a pet parrot, struck out with its 
claws only till pressed by the bird, when it drew in its head and feet, and 
secure in its tough shell, yielded without seeming to care much about it, 
to its noisy and mischievous tormentor, until the parrot left it to seek 
some less apathetic and more vulnerable object to worry. 
But when the Armadillo has a chance of escape by digging into the 
ground, it is no sluggard in its movements, and progresses towards the 
depths of the soil with surprising rapidity. This animal however on being 
much alarmed rolls itself up, and does not attempt to fly, and it is chiefly 
when it has been digging, and is at or near the mouth of a hole, that it 
tries to escape ; preferring generally, to be kicked, tumbled about with a 
stick, or be bitten at by a dog, to making an effort to run. 
We have heard it asserted that when it has the advantage of being on a 
hill or elevated spot, the Armadillo upon the approach of danger, forms a 
ball-shaped mass of its body, with the tail doubled under the belly, starts 
down the hill and rolls to the bottom. 
The principal food of this genus consists of ants of various species, which 
are so abundant in some portions of Central and South America as to be 
great pests to the inhabitants of those parts of the world. A large species 
of this family, however ( Dasypus giganteus), is described by D’Azara as 
feeding on the carcases of dead animals ; and it appears that in neighbour- 
hoods where that Armadillo is found, the graves of the dead are protected 
by strong double boards, to prevent the animal from penetrating, and 
devouring the bodies. Armadillos are said to eat young birds, eggs, 
snakes, lizards, &c. It should perhaps here be remarked that the large 
Armadillo just mentioned, although covered with plates or scales like our 
present species ( D . peba), and similar in form, is very different in its organ- 
ization, and has indeed been characterized by F. Cuvier under the new 
genus Priodontis. 
To return to our present species. The Nine-banded Armadillo is, as we 
were informed by Captain Charles H. Baldwin, kept in Nicaragua, not 
only by the people of the ranchos, but by the inhabitants of some of the 
little towns, to free their houses from ants, which, as is said, it can follow 
by the smell. When searching for ants about a house, the animal puts out 
