It is
omnivorous, and will thrive on anything from grass to flesh, found dead
and in all stages of decay, or captured by means of its own strategy.
Furthermore, its habits change to suit its conditions: thus, where
nocturnal carnivores are its enemies, it is diurnal; but where man
appears as a chief persecutor, it becomes nocturnal. It is much hunted
for its flesh, dogs being trained for the purpose; yet it actually
becomes more abundant as population increases in any district; and, if
versatility in habits or adaptiveness can be taken as a measure of
intelligence, this poor armadillo, a survival of the past, so old on the
earth as to have existed contemporaneously with the giant glyptodon, is
the superior of the large-brained cats and canines.
To finish with the mammalia, there are two interesting opossums, both of
the genus Didelphys, but in habits as wide apart as cat from otter. One
of these marsupials appears so much at home on the plains that I almost
regret having said that the vizcacha alone gives us the idea of being in
its habits the _product_ of the pampas. This animal--Didelphys
crassicaudata--has a long slender, wedge-, shaped head and body,
admirably adapted for pushing through the thick grass and rushes; for it
is both terrestrial and aquatic, therefore well suited to inhabit low,
level plains liable to be flooded. On dry land its habits are similar to
those of a weasel; in lagoons, where it dives and swims with great ease,
it constructs a globular nest suspended from the rushes.
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