The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1889-10-09
HUNTING THE ARMADILLo.
Betrayed in His HidjngPIace by Mosqui
toes, He Digs to Eiude Them.

"One of the principal recreations in
Central America" said civil engi-
neer who spent year on the Nicaragua
canal survey to n. 7. Sun reporter,
sis hunting the armadillo. The arm
adillo can't be described better than to
say it resembles pine cone about fif-
teen inches long and six OF seven
inches through, fitted with the head
and four legs of snapping-turtle, and
a tail like the horn of a short-horn
bull, all covered with plates of armor.
The armor is all thick bone and every
plate works on a hinge. Any animal
rugged up in that way you might sup
pose would be an ugly customer to
meet, but turtle-dovc isn't any more
meek and harmless than the armadillo.
He burrows in the ground like the
woodchucks do up here, and he can
dig his way underground when he is
flying from the hunter a good deal
faster than the hunter can dig after
him.
Covered from the end of his snout to
the tip of his tail, and clear down to
his toenails, as the armadillo is, with
a bone coat of mail an eighth of an
inch thick, he defies all beasts of prey
to make a meal of him except one.
That one is the native mosquito. A
mosquito that can suck the blood out
of an animal enclosed in a bone case
ought to be success, oughtn't her
| These mosquitoes won't refresh them
selves on anything else when they can
get armadillo. No hound ever trailed
a fox to his den so mercilessly as a
flock of mosquitoes will follow the
armadillo to his hole. In fact, the
hunters down there hunt the armadillo
by means of the mosquito. 1t is n job
to bag your armadillo even after you
have dead sure thing that he is in
his hole. If you had to dig on an un.
certainty you might throw out enough
| ground to fill cellar and then find thai
your armadiIlo hadn't been in his hole
from the start.
| But the mosquito will give you the
straight tip every time. When hunt
or goes out after armadillo he arm:
himself with pole ten feet long anC
a pick and shovel. He never knows
from outside appearances at a hol'
whether the armadillo is in or out, 81
he pokes the pole down in the holt
and stirs it around. If the armadillt
is at home, out will swarm hatful o
two of mosquitoes, who were gettin!
their dinner off the animal, and wer,
disturbed by the pole. If the tenan
is not at home there will be no sign o
a mosquito about the place.
| AS soon as the hunter locates hi
game he finds by poking in the hol
which direction the armadillo is run
ming his tunnel, for he begins to di,
as soon as he finds he is being hunted
The bearings of the tunnel found, tn
hunter sinks shaft about ten fee
away from the entrance. That shat
will sometimes be ten feet deep befor
it strikes the armadillo's tunnel, an
sometimes several deep shafts have t.
be sunk before the armadillo Is caugh
up with and headed off. A few rap
on the end of the armadillo's nose Wi
kill him.
There is big black ant there tha
is also good locator of the armadillo
These ants build mounds that are FIRE
quently ten feet high and thirty fee
around 1t is startling as you ar
walking through the woods to see on
of these immense mounds sink out G
sight so quick that it almost make
YOU dizzy. That means armadillC
He lives on those ants, and he can
get ut them any other way than b
digging the foundation from unde
their houses and letting them rigl
down to him. If the armadillo didn
eat these ants by the million they woul
overrun the country and destroy a
the crops, and if the armadillo didn
let the mosquitoes eat it by the ton, tn
mosquitoes would eat up all the people
The Central American natives make
dish out of armadillo meat that the
seem to enjoy hugely, but it is not
meal that any white man not men
Der of the Icthyophagus club coul
| we'll sit down and fool with"