The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-07-12
SOME ANIMALS ARE
 FORTS THAT WALK Armed by Nature for Pur-
 poses of Protection AFRAID OF NOTHING
Porcupine and the Armadillo Are Two We'll Known Examples of This. Manis of South Africa Is
 Cousin of the Latter

In these warlike times a survey of the methods of attack and defense adopted by some of the lower orders of creation affords theme more than or dinary interest, says the New York American. One meets with some anil malls which simply invite their neigh bors to tread on their coattails. and those that accept the challenge are generally very sorry for themselves afterward. Other have the power of in stantly converting themselves into a veritable Palace of Peace" though the walls thereof in some cases, may bristle with bayonets.
 The hedgehog and the porcupine af- ford instances of this kind. They are feeble folk, dull-witted slow-footed and tactiturn. Popular superstition would have us believe that the hedge hog. at any rate. is very devil of a fellow" who will not only rob hen roosts but will levy further tax on the farmer by milking the cows. Poor, maligned misunderstood hedgehog! It is true that he he is guilty of petty theft on occasion. but crime he can never rise to.
 Being of a Quoker-like disposition when danger threatens he simply re- tires within himself, tucking his head between his hind legs. Thus he auto matically becomes sort of animated pin cushion-the business end of the pine outward Nothing will then induce him to display further signs of hos tility.
 The "fretful porcupine." when red handed violence overtakes him, thrusts his head between his foreegs and turns his back on his enemy. as If unwilling to witness the pain he is about to inflict For when in this position he presents q most formidable and dangerous arma- ment of spines as sharp as needles and far stronger. But the porcupine is burly and often fat Hence, to a hungry lion or tiger, eight and twenty pounds of toothsome meat, which tastes like veal" !" is worth a few pin pricks and he is ac- cordingly slain. Often however, the bitter is indeed bitten, for lions have been found with porcupine quills stuck through their cheeks, or driven we'll home into the foot. Dogs are often blinded, or even killed in making similar ventures
 The spines, both of the hedgehog and the porcupine, are nothing more than excessively enlarged hairs, and on the bodies of these animals every graduation between hairs and spines can be found But in the two animals now to be dis N'Sooo iht di IS Ol a very Q1t- ferent wind
 In the armadillo, the body is invested in a coat of mail, formed by bony back shield. hinged across the middle. and overaid with horny plates. The crown of the head and the tail are similarly protected. When threatened during his walks abroad, all this armored cruiser has to do is to double itself up, so that his head and tail come together and close the only aparture left by this acrobatic feat.
 The South American armadillo has a cousin in Africa, the manis In this animal the body is protected by a cuirass of horny plates, formed of az gluitinated hairs. His mode of repell- ing unwelcome advance is to bend him self double and enwrap himself with his tail. Peaceful persuasion must be long sustained indeed before it will prevail in inducing him to unfold
 But the manis has another method of escaping unwelcome. attention. He will grip the hole of a tree with his hind legs, and then, supported by his tail he will bend his body earthward till it makes a right angle with the tree. Thus posed, he will remain mo- tionless for hours, and looks for all the world. like the stump of broken branch.
 The device of the armadillo has a rallel in the tortoise. But here the ua 'ersurface of the body is also pro- tec,ed by bony shield. It is not necessary. therefore, to double up the body; the only apertures are closed by the head and the fore lgs and the tail, whose surfaces are armored But in some of the tortoises the back shield Is hinged so that is can be drawn downward to close the fortress against invaders. In other species the hinge Is formed across the breast slfieId. but the effect Is the same