The Naturalist in La Plata

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e passer-by, they look like little friars in black robes and grey cowls; but the expression on their round faces is malignant

m it the effluvium comes in nauseating gusts to the nostrils from a distance exceeding two miles. It is really astonishing that only one small ruminant should be found on this immense grassy area, so admirably suited to herbivo

Mendoza, and has never colonized the grassy pampas. The Tatusia hybrida, called "little mule" from the length of its ears, and the Dasypus tricinctus, which, when disturbed, rolls it

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ere their only enemies. The fourth, and most important, is the hairy armadillo, with habits which are in strange contrast to those of its perishing congeners, and which seem to mock many hard-and-fast rules concerning animal life. It is omnivorous, and will thrive on anything from grass to flesh, found dead and in all

ess can be taken as a measure of intelligence, this poor armadillo, a survival of the past, so old on the earth as

de apart as cat from otter. One of these marsupials appears so much at home on the plains that I almost regret ha