188 EDENTATA. 
zoologists. The labours of Cuvier, Owen, and other anatomists have shown the 
necessity of generically separating the very marked groups of which it is composed ; 
and these were carefully reviewed and characterized by the late H. N. Turner in the 
very last of the short but brilliant series of memoirs which was cut off by his untimely 
death*. 
In Tatusia the fore foot has only four digits, of which the middle pair are considerably 
longer than the first and fourth ; the ears are placed close together and are directed back- 
wards; there are from twelve to fourteen movable bands or girdles between the scapular 
and pelvic shields; and the tail is elongate and covered with scutes, which are arranged 
in rings or whorls, except towards the tip. The only species here recognized as an 
inhabitant of our subregion, 7. novemcincta, may be at once known from its congeners by 
the length of its ears and tail (the former being one third the length of the head, and the 
latter nearly as long as the body), and by the flatness of the plates of the pelvic shield. 
The length of the head and body is about twelve inches, that of the tail about the same. 
The claims of two other genera of Dasypodide to a place in our fauna must here be 
noticed. Dr. v. Frantzius was informed that a second species of Armadillo existed in 
Costa Rica, and that it was called Armado de Zopilote, because its flesh had the same 
musky smell as the Zopilotl or Black Vulture, Cathartes atrata (Bartram). On one 
occasion only did he see a living example; but he found a skull in the collection of 
Dr. Joos of Schaffhausen, and identified the animal as Dasypus gymnurus, Mliger 
[=D. duodecemcinctus, Schreber, = Xenurus duodecemcinctus, auct.], a native of Peru, 
Brazil, and Paraguay}. Mr. Tomes, on the other hand, in his paper on Mr. Salvin’s 
Guatemalan collections, included Dasypus minutus, Desmarest,a Patagonian form, without 
making any mention of Tatusia novemcinctat. ‘The occurrence of either Xenurus or 
true Dasypus in Central America appears highly improbable ; and as it is not confirmed 
by any of the collections to which I have access, I cannot but think that there has 
been some error of identification in the above records. 
1. Tatusia novemcincta. (Tab. XXII.) 
Dasypus novemeinctus, Linneus, Syst. Nat. i. p. 54 (1766, descr. orig.)’; Baird, Mamm. N. Am. 
p. 623°; Rep. U.S. Mex. Bound. Surv. ii. Mamm. p. 48°; Dugés, La Nat. i. p. 138 *. 
Dasypus novemcinctus, var. mexicanus, Peters, Monatsb. Ak. Berl. 1864, p. 180 (descr. orig.)’. 
Dasypus peba, Desmarest, Mamm. p. 368 (1820, ex Marcgrave)*; Moore, P.Z.S. 1859, p. 51”. 
Dasypus fenestratus, Peters, Monatsb. Ak. Berl. 1864, p. 180 (descr. orig.)* ; Frantzius, Arch. f. 
Naturg. xxxv. 1, p. 310°. 
Dasypus mexicanus, Fitzinger, Sitzungsb. Ak. Wien, lxiv. 2, p. 8368 (1871, ex Peters)". 
Tatusia mexicana, Gray, Hand-list Edent. &. Mamm. p. 14, pl. ii. figs. 3, 4 (1873, deser. orig.)". 
Tatusia leptorhynchus, Gray, op. cit. p. 15, pl. i. figs. 8, 4 (1873, descr. orig.)”’. 
* «On the Arrangement of the Edentate Mammalia,” P. Z. S. 1851, pp. 205-221. 
t+ Arch. f. Naturg. xxxv. 1, p. 309. t P.Z.S. 1861, p. 287. 
