no attention to one another, swimming and resting in close proximity.  They both had the same enemy, the jaguar.  The capybara is a game animal only in the sense that a hare or rabbit is.  The flesh is good to eat, and its amphibious habits and queer nature and surroundings make it interesting.  In some of the ponds the water had about gone, and the capybaras had become for the time being beasts of the marsh and the mud; although they could always find little slimy pools, under a mass of water-lilies, in which to lie and hide.

Our whole stay on this ranch was delightful.  On the long rides we always saw something of interest, and often it was something entirely new to us.  Early one morning we came across two armadillos—­the big, nine-banded armadillo.  We were riding with the pack through a dry, sandy pasture country, dotted with clumps of palms, round the trunks of which grew a dense jungle of thorns and Spanish bayonets.  The armadillos were feeding in an open space between two of these jungle clumps, which were about a hundred yards apart.  One was on all fours; the other was in a squatting position, with its fore legs off the ground.  Their long ears were very prominent.  The dogs raced at them.  I had always supposed that armadillos merely shuffled along, and curled up for protection when menaced; and I was almost as surprised as if I had seen a turtle gallop when these two armadillos bounded off at a run, going as fast as rabbits.  One headed back for the nearest patch of jungle, which it reached.  The other ran at full speed—­and ran really fast, too—­until it nearly reached the other patch, a hundred yards distant, the dogs in full cry immediately behind it.  Then it suddenly changed its mind, wheeled in its tracks, and came back like a bullet right through the pack.  Dog after dog tried to seize it or stop it and turned to pursue it; but its wedge-shaped snout and armored body, joined to the speed at which it was galloping, enabled it to drive straight ahead through its pursuers, not one of which could halt it or grasp it, and it reached in safety its thorny haven of refuge.  It had run at speed about a hundred and fifty yards.  I was much impressed by this unexpected exhibition; evidently this species of armadillo only curls up as a last resort, and ordinarily trusts to its speed, and to the protection its build and its armor give it while running, in order to reach its burrow or other place of safety.  Twice, while laying railway tracks near Sao Paulo, Kermit had accidentally dug up armadillos with a steam-shovel.

There were big ant-hills, some of them of huge dimensions, scattered through the country.  Sometimes they were built against the stems of trees.  We did not here come across any of the poisonous or biting ants which, when sufficiently numerous, render certain districts uninhabitable.  They are ordinarily not very numerous.  Those of them that march in large bodies kill nestling birds, and at once destroy any big animal unable to get out of their way.  It has been suggested that nestlings in their nests are in some way immune from the attack of these ants.  The experiments of our naturalists tended to show that this was not the case.  They plundered any nest they came across and could get at.