TATUSIA. 189 
Ayotochtli seu Dasypus cucurbitinus, Hernandez, Rer. Med. Nov. Hisp. p. 314; De Quad. Nov. 
Hisp. fol. 2, cap. 1. | 
Armado, Armadillo, Encubierto of Spanish Americans. 
Hab. Nortn America, Texas? ?.—Mextico (Mus. Brit.; Uhde, Mus. Berol. ; Liebmann, 
Mus. Hafn.), Matamoras (Couch, U.S. Nat. Mus.*), Guanajuato, Guadalajara 
(Dugés*), Yucatan (Gawmer, Mus. Boucard); Guatemata (Mus. Basel®), Volcan 
de Fuego, Volcan de Atitlan, and forests of Northern Vera Paz (Salvin & Godman, 
Mus. Brit.) ; Honpuras, Comayagua (Leyland"); Costa Rica (Hoffmann & Frant- 
zius, Mus. Berol.8°)—Sovuta AMERICA to Paraguay. 
A Long-tailed Armadillo has long been known to inhabit Mexico and Central 
America, and till late years has always been referred to the widely distributed species 
variously known as Dasypus novemcinctus, D. peba, or D. longicaudata. In 1864, 
however, Professor Peters described an old and a young specimen from Costa Rica as 
the types of a new species, D. fenestratus®, and, more doubtfully, a Mexican example, 
as a new variety, mexicanus, of D. novemcinctus®. Seven years later Dr. Fitzinger, in 
one of his compilations, raised the latter name to specific rank 1°; and in 1873 the late 
Dr. Gray described Tatusia meaicana, apparently independently, from a specimen in 
the British Museum !!, and added another Central-American species under the name of 
T. leptorhynchus (sic)!*. After a careful examination of Dr. Peters’s and Gray’s types, 
and comparison with a large number of other specimens from both South and Central 
America, I cannot recognize their claims to specific distinction. 
The only external character ascribed to D. fenestratus is that the posterior shields 
of the girdles do not reach their anterior edges ; this is merely comparative, and I find 
that Brazilian specimens vary considerably. In the skull Professor Peters observed 
that the small openings in the palatine portion of the maxillaries lay between the first 
molars, the maxillo-palatine suture was behind the last molars, the lachrymal canal 
opened nearer the orbit, and the palatines were shorter than in D. longicaudatus 
[Z. novemcincta}’. But the Armadillos show so. much individual variation in minor 
cranial characters that I cannot regard these differences as of any real value. Accord- 
ingly we find that they are not at all constant in Central-American specimens; Dr. v. 
Frantzius observes that on examining Guatemalan specimens in the Basel Museum he 
was much astonished to find that they agreed with true D. novemcinctus, both in their 
skulls and in their girdle-shields, though the only conclusion that he drew was that 
both “ species” would probably be found in Costa Rica. 
The Mexican Armadillo was characterized by Professor Peters as having the snout 
longer, the loral shields narrower and more numerous, the temporal shields broader 
and fewer, and the claw of the second digit stouter than in D. novemcinctus; some 
differences in the teeth and skull were alluded to, but not described®. Gray gives a 
somewhat similar account of his 7’. mexicana; and a slight difference in the arrangement 
