AR'MADIL'LO (Sp. dim. of armed°, armed, referring to its bony shell). (1) An edentate mammal of the South American family Dasy podida', especially characterized by its bony armor. The muzzle is elongated. the mouth pro vided with feeble teeth destitute of true roots, and set apart from each other, and the tongue is smooth and slender, with a glutinous saliva, adapted to the capture of ants and other insects, after the manner of the ant-eaters, but not long and extensile, like theirs. The limbs are short and strong, as are also the claws, and the animals have a great aptitude for digging and burrowing, by means of which they seek to shelter them selves from enemies—burrowing in sand or soft earth with such rapidity that it is almost im possible to dig them out. and indeed it can only be done by persevering till they are exhausted.
The feature which peculiarly distinguishes the armadillo, and in which the animal differs from all the other mammalia, is the bony armor with which the body is covered, and which consists of polygonal plates not articulated, united on the head to form a solid covering. and similarly to form solid bucklers, over the shoulders and the haunches; and between these, disposed in trans verse bands, which allow of freedom of motion to the body, similar hands in most species protecting also the tail. When alarmed or exposed to dan ger. armadillos, which have the middle portion of the armor divided into several bands, protect theniselves by rolling up into a ball, ex poses only the hard, armored surface. The three banded armadillo, or apar. of the Argentine pampas (Tolypcutcs tricinctus) is famous for this and for walking on the tips of its foreclaws.
Armadillos feed not only on insects, but on vegetable and animal food of almost every kind, which by decomposition or otherwise has ac quired a sufficient softness. Some of them prefer vegetable food, others delight chiefly in carrion. They are all natives of the and temperate parts of South America, in the woods and pam pas of whi•ll they were formerly found in im mense numbers; hut all except the omnivorous and adaptable hairy one (Dusyvas villosus) dis appear quickly from the plains wherever a settlement is made. They are timid and in
offensive, although, when they are incautiously assailed, injury may be received from their ( laws. Their flesh is esteemed a delicacy, par ticularly that of the species which feeds chiefly on vegetable food. The largest species is fully three feet long, exclusive of the tail; the small est not above ten inches. The species are numer ous, and they are divided among half a dozen or more genera, representing probably three families. The nine-banded armadillo (Tatusia vorcmcincta) occurs as far north as Texas, where it is called "peba," a name properly be longing to some South American species of the genus Dasypus, to which the non-burrowing peludos, common in the pampas, belong. One of the rarest and most interesting of these animals is the little pi•hi•iago (Clilammlophorus Iran (wills), five or six inches long, a native of the Argentine Republic, living underground like the mole, whiell it nm•h resembles in its habits, and feeding on the same kind of food. Its forefeet are adapted for digging, although in a didercut manner from those of the mole. The skull is destitute of sutures; there are resemblances to the osteology of birds in the ribs and their union to the sternum; the hinder part of the body is altogether that of any other known ani mal, in its terminating quite abruptly, as if cut off almost where its thickness is greatest, or its if the back were suddenly bent down at right angles, the tail not springing from where the line of the back appears to terminate, but far below. The whole upper and hinder parts of the body are covered with a coat of mail, made up of a series of square plates: the under parts and legs are covered with long silky hair. See color plate of ; and plate of ANT-EATERS