Evening star., 1901-08-31
You Could Love the Armadillo but
for One Failing.
BUT MAKES 4 DAINTY dish FOR some
Its Own Shell Forms the Dish I'M
Which 1t is Roasted
HAS A PEG U Ii r ia STE

Written for The Evening Star by Prof. Charles F.
Hclder.
South America has been from time i'm
memorial the home of arniored giants.
During the last century an English natu-
ralist in wandering over the Pampas coun-
try came upon an Indian family the chill
dren of which were using as a house a
huge she'll facetted like boiler. 1t was
large enough to hold five or six. In another
camp he found huge trumpet similar to
those used today on yachts, evidently part
of the curious house. Investigation showed
that the latter was the domed shell of a
gigantic ancestor of the armadillo of to-
day-the glyptodon-whie the trumpet-liks
object which was employed for that pur-
pose was it's tail.
These giants lived at a time when the
sloths We're thirty feet in length and haul
ed down the tops of large trees with their
ponderous claws. The glyptodon has dis
appeared, it's extinction being hastened by
it's colossal size which rendered it a con-
spicuous object in the landscape; but it is
represented by race OF animals equally
as remarkable-the armadil1OeS; animals
encased in hard flint-like armors, perfectly
protected from their enemies. The various
kinds differ very materially in appearance
but all have the armor or coat OF mall
being literally boxed in like turtle, with
this difference, that the shell is, a rule,
divided into zones bands made up of
plates tightly Joined. so that the animal
can roll itself up like some insects; and as
even the top of the head is provided with
a plate it is absolutely invulnerable from
attacks by birds of prey, the cougar. ocelot
and other animals. So perfect is this pro-
lection in some that they have been seen
to close up suddenly when attacked on
hillside, forming into a complete oval or
ball which went bounding down the hill
like cannon ball, to the amazement Of
the enemy. Such a ball has been tossed
into hot water, the animal dying and re-
tanning the ball shape which would be con-
sidered by most observers fruit or seed
of some kind
Of these curious animals two have made
themselves especially offensive to South
Americans from their ghou-like charac
teriSticS. These are the hairy armadiliO
and the great armadillo; the latter nearly
five feet In length in the largest specimens.
The tail of this animal is d remarkable
trumpet-shaped organ. solid as stone. and
1t is used by the native Botacudos. who
with it call to each other through the
dense jungles Of Surinam and Brazil. The
traveller in these countries will notice that
graves In the forest are invariably covered
with stones. This is not part of the burial
ceremony or a monument, but to pro-
tect the grave from the four-legged ar
mored ghoul that has developed a horrible
fancy for the dead. The extent of their
excavations with this in view can scarcely
De DelleVeu. A native IN bOtaCuuO showed
a traveller a grave in which the body had
been buried seven feet. tamped with rock
to a distance of four feet, then covered
with earth which was packed over with
large stones each of which was weight
for a man. Despite this. large armadillo
had hauled aside the stones with it's pow
erful claws and penetrated three feet into
the stone mass when it was captured. In
half an hour it would have consummated
it's ghoulish object.
Scent Better Than Sight.
The scent of these animals Is marvellous,
their eyesfght being proportionately poor.
and they can distinguish their prey a long
distance away. reaching it with unerring
correctness. The remarkable divining
sense of these arnadilloes was tested by
secreting the dead body of an animal in an
inclosure. Four armadilloes were released
in an outside inclosure at least twenty feet
from the former. Before twenty four hours
had elapsed three had reached the bait in
an exact line, while the fourth had deviated
but few feet, correcting the mistake or
error in scent before coming to it The
hairy armadillo is often found on the open
plains in the daytime as well as at night
If an experienced traveller wishes to cap
ture one he approaches every dead OK cow
or horse he meets and cuts open the dried