mataco, matacho, matico

(Native names.] Zool.: Dasypus aspar (Desmarest), D. tri cinct us (Linn.), the Bolita, or Ball Armadillo, so-called from its faculty of a uming a spherical form. It is about eighteen inches long, of which the tail is two and a half, and the head three. Between the two bucklers are three movable bands, whence the animal is met ira lar the Three-banded Ayres, but it is nowhere very common. sometimes called măt-a-dör, măt-a-döre, subst . [Sp. matador , from matar , Lat. mac to =to kill, to sacrifice; mactator =one who kills or sacrifices.] 1. Ord . Lang .: One who kills: spec if. in Spanish bull-fights the man appointed to administer the fatal stroke to the bull, when excited to fury by the attacks of the picadores and banderilleros. He is armed with a sword and a small stick ( muleta ), to which a piece of scarlet silk is attached. The animal is killed by plunging the sword into it near the left shoulder-blade, and if the stroke is skillfully and properly given, death is instantaneous. "In costly sheen and gaudy cloak array'd, But all afoot, the light-limb'd Matadore Stands in the center, eager to invade The lord of lowing herds." Byron: Childe Harold, iv. 74. 2. Cards: One of the three principal cards in the games of ombre and quadrille, which are always two black aces and the deuce of spades and clubs, and the seven of hearts and diamonds. These are called murdering cards because they take or kill all other. *mat-a-fund, s. [Sp. matar =to kill, and Latin fund a a sling.) A kind of sling. IMG:content-0988.png:[graphic] "That murderous sling The matafund." Southey: Joan of Arc , bk. viii. ma-ta-ma'-ta, s. (Native name.] Zool.: Chelys fimbriata , a river tortoise living in the stagnant pools near the Orinoco and Amazon. It lives on fish and small water-birds. Its peculiar barbules, from their close resemblance to worms, serve to attract fish. The head is depre ed, wide, and triangular; the nostrils prolonged into a kind of proboscis, the gape wide, and the jaws rounded. The buckler is flat and bumpy.