Family III. Dasypodidæ.
(Armadillos.)
"When we speak of a quadruped," observes Buffon, "the very name carries with it the idea of an animal covered with hair, as that of a bird, or a fish, suggests the corresponding ideas of feathers or scales respectively, as attributes inseparable from these beings; yet nature, always more fertile in her resources than we are skilful in tracing her relations, or appreciating her designs, escapes at every moment from our most extensive observations, and astonishes us by her exceptions, still more than by her general laws." We are presented with one of these exceptions in the animals before us, whose bodies are covered with a peculiar crust or shell, not unlike that of a lobster, forming three bucklers, on the head, shoulders, and rump respectively, the two latter being connected by a series of narrow cross-bands of similar material, so like the plate-armour of the middle ages, as to have suggested the Spanish name Armadillo. The shields, as well as the bands, are composed of numerous, many-sided plates, placed side by side like paving-stones, but without any motion among themselves, except a limited degree of pliancy during life from the thinness of the whole. The transverse bands, however, connected by the skin, allow of free motion. The under parts, as well as the limbs, are covered with a thick grained skin, roughened by hard warts or tubercles, from which arise a few bristly hairs. The joints of the back-plates are also provided with long hairs, and a considerable fringe of the same grows from beneath the lateral edges of the bucklers. The tail is either grained like the under parts, or, more generally, encased in rings, resembling the back-plates.
The Armadillos are furnished with molar teeth alone, which vary in number in the different genera, never being less than twenty-six, in the whole, and in one species even amounting to ninety-eight. They are detached, those of one jaw fitting into the interstices of the other, as in the Dolphins. They are constructed on the same model as those of the preceding Families.
The animals of the present Family are confined to South America, where they feed on farinaceous roots, on carrion, and on ants, the dwellings of which they tear away with their powerful claws. They burrow with amazing rapidity, so as to disappear in the earth before they can be seized when suddenly surprised. They have, more or less perfectly, the power of rolling themselves up into a ball. Genus Dasypus. (Linn.)
The Encouberts, as they are called by Cuvier, are distinguished from other Armadillos by having five toes on the fore feet, of which the exterior and interior are the smallest; by having nine or ten teeth on each side of each jaw; and especially by having two teeth in the inter-maxillary bones of the upper jaw, representing, as it were, the incisors of ordinary Mammalia, and thus forming a remarkable exception, not only to the other animals of this Family, but also to those of the whole Order Edentata. The tail is of moderate length, for the most part covered with scales, arranged in quincunx, that is, in the form of the five upon dice. The limbs are very short; the body is broad and unusually flat; yet these Armadillos are so swift of foot that few men can outstrip them. They also burrow with incredible rapidity.
The Weasel-headed Armadillo (Dasypus encoubert, Desm.) has been repeatedly brought to Europe, and several specimens have lived in the gardens of the Zoological Society of London. The head and body are about sixteen inches in length, and the tail is about six inches more The head is large, flat, and nearly triangular, with the muzzle rounded; the eyes are small, the ears are erect, and of moderate size. This species has been commonly known as the six-banded Armadillo, but the number of the bands is now found to be an uncertain character: seven or eight are the ordinary number of this species. It is restless, unquiet, and curious: if any noise is made at the entrance of its burrow, it grunts like a pig, and comes boldly forth to ascertain the cause of the disturbance, though it can make no effort at defence. Its only resource is in retreating, and burrowing to a greater depth. It feeds upon soft ground-fruits and roots, and also on carrion, whenever it can find it; and a
WEASEL-HEADED ARMADILLO.
large portion of the sustenance of this, as well as of other species, is derived from the numberless wild cattle which are caught and slaughtered on the Pampas for the sake of the hides and tallow, the carcases of which are left, as valueless, to decay, or to become the prey of wild animals. Notwithstanding the filthy nature of their food, the Armadillos, being very fat, are eagerly sought for food by the inhabitants of European descent, as well as by the Indians. The animal is roasted in its shell, and is esteemed one of the greatest delicacies of the country. The flesh is said to resemble that of a sucking-pig.
Azara has strikingly illustrated the unerring precision with which the Armadillo is able to push his mining operations in a given direction. "My friend Noséda," says he, "having arranged a trap for the purpose of taking chibigouzous (?), and having placed in it, by way of bait, a cock, with a small quantity of maize to support him, it so happened that a few grains of maize fell through between the boards which formed the bottom of the trap. An Armadillo arrived during the night, and wishing to get at the maize thus accidentally spilt, opened a trench or burrow at some distance from the trap, and without deviating a hair's breadth from the straight line of his direction, pushed it on to the very spot where the grain had fallen, and possessed himself of the booty."
An animal of burrowing habits, the Aardvark of South Africa (Orycteropus capensis, Geoff.), though by its anatomy it seems to be related to the present Family more nearly than to the following, forms evidently a link of connexion between the two. It is clothed with scanty hair, feeds on ants, has a long slender muzzle, and a tongue in some degree extensile: but on the other hand the jaws are furnished with molar teeth. These are, it is true, of most singular structure, being simple cylinders without roots, and therefore always growing, covered with a coat of enamel on the crown, which when worn down reveals the interior of the tooth pierced with numerous small canals, running through its length, so that the teeth of this animal have been compared to pieces of cane cut across. The general figure of the Aard-vark has a slight likeness to a small pig, and hence the name applied to it by the Dutch colonists, which signifies earth-pig.