I 36 > GUIDE TO THE 
a large tank in its path, at once took to the water and 
swam across it, but it was nearly killed in so doing, as 
a Samber deer followed it into the tank and tried to 
strike it down with its forefeet. Monkeys manifest great 
fear at the sight of a Manis. Many hill-tribes have a 
superstitious awe of it, and use its scales as charms, and 
in Western China they are eaten for their supposed 
medicinal properties. 
The Armadilloes are even more remarkable than the 
Pangolins or Manidce . They are represented in the cage 
before which the visitor is now standing by the six- 
banded Armadillo, Dasypns sexcinchts . They are all 
inhabitants of South America, and the chief peculiarity 
of their structure, as compared with the other Edentata , is 
the presence of a hard bony armature that serves to protect 
the upper surface of their bodies, and as it is acted upon by 
special skin muscles, all of the armadilloes also possess the 
power, in a greater or less degree, of rolling themselves up 
like balls. The armature is arranged in the form of bands, 
or shields, but it is composed of a multitude of small bony 
pieces, ossifications of the skin, the equivalents of the 
bony scales that occur in the skin of crocodiles. These 
Edentates are the only living mammals that have this 
form of skin structure. The under surfaces of their 
bodies and limbs are usually covered more or less 
with hair. The side teeth or molars are present, and the 
number varies in different species, as many as twenty- 
four occurring on each side of each jaw in some, but 
only seven or eight in others. Their heads are long 
and pointed, and their sense of smell is very acute. They 
are provided with strong claws, and are rapid burrowers, 
as their front legs are very powerful. They are nocturnal 
