178 ARMADILLOS AND SNAKES CHAP. 



Mr. W. H. Hudson has described the way in which this Armadillo 

 will kill a snake by holding it down and literally sawing the 

 reptile in half by help of the sharp and serrated edges of the 

 carapace. Dasypus has a very short tail, which is shielded by 

 distinct rings near the base. 



Tatusia novemcincta is a species with nine movable bands. 

 The genus has four teats ; the ears are near together. There are 

 no caeca and no azygos lobe to the lung. A species apparently 

 belonging to this genus, but described under the generic names of 

 Cryptophractus and Praopus, is remarkable for the thick covering 

 of hair, not entirely wanting but usually thin in other Armadillos. 

 In this particular species the coat of hair is so thick as to 

 conceal the underlying plates of the carapace. The individual 

 hairs are stiff, and one inch and a half in length. 1 



The genus Xenurus contains several species, the best known of 

 which is inaptly named X. unicinctus. As a matter of fact the 

 characteristic feature of the genus is the existence of twelve 

 or thirteen movable plates between the two ends of the body. 

 X. unicinctus has twelve dorsal and three lumbar vertebrae. This 

 Armadillo, known by the vernacular name of the Cabassou, has one 

 of the most modified hands that are found in the family. The first 

 two digits are slender and elongated ; but are quite normal in the. 

 number of their phalanges. In the remaining three digits the 

 metacarpal is short and broad, while the proximal phalanx is 

 either suppressed altogether or fused with the metacarpal, the 

 middle phalanx is present but short, while the third phalanx is very 

 large indeed. As in Dasypus, but not as in Tatusia, which is in 

 so many other respects divergent from these genera, the lungs 

 have an azygos lobe. As a small point of difference, tending to 

 show an alliance between the genera Xenurus and Dasypus 

 and their difference from Tatusia, is the deeply-imbedded gall- 

 bladder ; this sac is not nearly so deeply plunged into the hepatic 

 tissue in Tatusia. Xenurus has no caecal dilatations. The 

 brain " is intermediate in its form and surface markings between 

 Dasyjms and Tulypeutes." The small intestine is nearly eighteen 

 times the length of the large. But these intestinal measurements 

 are not of much avail in this group as marks of affinity, since in 

 three species of Dasypus Garrod gives the following widely- 

 divergent lengths: D. villosus, 11-5 feet and 1'25 ; D. mimttus 



1 Flower, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1886, p. 419. 



