the year; be that as it may, it is certain that they never come out of their holes but in the night, when they seek for food. The armadillo is hunted with small dogs, by whom he is soon overtaken; but before they have reached him he contracts himself, in which condition he is seized, and carried off. If near the brink of a precipice, he escapes both dogs and hunters, for contracting he rolls himself down like a ball, without hurt or prejudice to his coat of mail. These animals are fat, and very prolific: the male has exterior signs of great generative faculties; the female brings forth, as it is said, every four months, of course their species are very numerous. As they are good to eat they are hunted in different manners; they are easily taken with snares laid for them on the banks of rivers, and in marshy grounds, which they inhabit by preference. They never go to any great distance from their burrows, which are very deep, and which they endeavour to reach whenever they are alarmed. It is pretended they are not afraid of the bite of the rattle snake, though it is as dangerous as that of the viper; nay, it is asserted, that they live in peace with these reptiles, which are often found in their holes. The savages make different uses of their crusts; they paint them with divers colours, and make baskets, boxes, and other small vessels, of them. Monard, Ximenes, and many other writers, have attributed great medicinal properties to different parts of these animals; they assure us that the crustaceous covering, reduced into powder, and taken inwardly, even in a small quantity, is a powerful sudorific; and that the bone of the hip, pulverised, cures the venereal disease; that the first bone of the tail, applied to the ear, cures deafness, &c. We give no credit to these extraordinary properties; the crust and bones of the armadillos being of the same nature as the bones of other animals. Such marvellous effects are never produced but by imaginary virtues. SUPPLEMENT. I received the drawing of a six-banded armadillo, taken from life, from M. de Séve, and with it a description; in which, after stating that it corresponds pretty much with that we have given, observes, that the rows on the bucklers, and their pieces, vary in form and number: this animal was fourteen inches long, independent of the tail, which he supposed to be about six inches, as part of it was broken off; his head was rather more than three inches long, and his ears a little above one; on the broadest part of the body the crust measured six inches seven lines; the fore legs were two inches long, and his hind ones three.