Zoological Society. 279 



in the Armadillo, Dasypus peba. In his paper in the Proceedings of 

 the Zoological Society, i. 144, he says : *' The muscular parietes of 

 the pharynx and oesophagus are very thick, for from the nature of the 

 teeth, small, conical and wide apart, the food can undergo but little 

 comminution in the mouth, and hence the necessity of additional 

 power for propelling imperfectly divided substances into the stomach." 



2. In concordance with the structure of the mouth, the stomach 

 of the Tortoise is strong and muscular : in the larger of the two in- 

 dividuals I dissected so remarkably so, as would forcibly have re- 

 minded a casual observer of the gizzard of birds. The stomach of 

 the Armadillos, though of a globular form, is similar in structure ; 

 so much so, that Prof. Owen speaks of it as "a structure analogous 

 to the gizzard of birds," Ibid. As in the Dasypoda (Zool. Proc. i. 

 142 & 154), so in the larger specimen of the Tortoise, the coats of 

 the stomach, generally thick, are especially so at the pylorus. 



3. In the smaller species of Tortoise I observed that the colon is 

 prolonged beyond the insertion of the ileum, so as to form a short 

 caecum, as described by Martin in his account of the Testudo greeca 

 (Zool. Proc. i. 63 & 74). In my larger species there was no caecum ; 

 such is also the case with the Testudo indica (Zool. Proc. i. 47). In 

 the Testudo tabulata " there is no trace of appendix caeci " (Holberton 

 in Zool. Journal, iv. 325). On the other hand, Prof. Owen has 

 ascertained the presence of a caecum in another species of Tortoise, 

 Emys concentrica, Leconte (Zool. Proc. i. 74). From these accu- 

 mulated observations, it becomes evident that the presence of a 

 caecum is a varying character in the Tortoises. A similar variable- 

 ness in this structure has been remarked by Prof. Owen in the genus 

 Dasypus (Zool. Proc. i. 156). 



4. A great tendency to anchylose parts usually distinct, and to 

 ossify others generally cartilaginous, is observable in the Tortoise in 

 the ribs, in the dorsal vertebrae, in the scapulae and clavicles, in the 

 component parts of the pelvis, in the sternal cartilages, and in the 

 parts forming the plastron. In the Armadillos it may be remarked 

 in the cervical vertebrae, in the sternal portions of the ribs, and in 

 the manubrium and clavicular processes (Owen in Zool. Proc. ii. 134). 

 In the Sloths also it is especially evident in the anchylosis of the 

 bones of the hand. 



5. Hence results a similarity of locomotion in the Tortoises and 

 Armadillos ; so that the following extract from Prof. Owen, referring 

 to the motion of the latter animals, will apply almost equally well to 

 that of the former : " Every one who has seen the living Armadillo 

 running about the open plot of ground in the Society's Gardens must 

 have been struck with the machine-like manner in which the body is 

 carried along. The short legs are almost concealed, and their motions 

 are not accompanied by any corresponding inflections of the spine, 

 the two extremities of the trunk not being alternately raised and de- 

 pressed as in the quadrupeds which move by bounds " (Zool. Proc. 

 ii. 135). 



6. The anterior articular processes of the vertebrae of the Arma- 

 dillo, especially of the hinder dorsal and the lumbar regions, assist aa 



