MARTIN RATTLER. ; 109

out, and, running quickly away, burrowed into a little
hole and disappeared !

“That is an armadillo,’ remarked the hermit, con-
tinuing to lead the way through the woods. “It is
covered with a coat of mail, as you see; and when
enemies come it rolls itself up like a ball and lies like
a hard stone till they go away. But it has four little
legs, and with them it burrows so quickly that we
cannot dig it up, and must smoke it out of its hole—
which I do often, because it is very good to eat, as
you very well know.”

While they continued thus to walk through the
woods conversing, Martin and Barney were again in-
terested and amused by the immense number of brill-
iant parrots and toucans which swooped about, chat-
tering from tree to tree, in large flocks. Sometimes
thirty or forty of the latter would come screaming
through the woods and settle upon the dark-green
foliage of a coffee-tree; the effect of which was to
give the tree the appearance of having been suddenly
loaded with ripe golden fruit. Then the birds would
catch sight of the travellers and fly screaming away,
leaving the tree dark-green and fruitless as before.
The little green parrots were the most outrageously
noisy things that ever lived. Not content with

screaming when they flew, they continued to shriek,