108 VIEW OF THE FAUNA OF BRAZIL 



The second family, the Ant-bears, contains two species 

 occurring in this district ; namely, Myrmecophaga juhata, 

 Linn., and Myr. tamandua, Cuv., the latter of which is very 

 common, while the first is but seldom met with. 



The third family. Sloths, is not found here. It contains 

 three known species, which are confined to the continuous 

 belt of forest that covers the coast-line of Brazil, and the 

 banks of its larger rivers ; in the interior highlands they are 

 never seen. 



Thus we see that seven species of the order Edentata at 

 present inhabit this district ; one of which, namely, Dasypus 

 longicaudus, is extraordinarily abundant : three, namely, Das. 

 gymnurus, Das. gilvipes, and Myrmecophaga Tamandua, are 

 tolerably common : one, namely, Myrmecophaga juhata, is 

 very rare : and finally, the seventh species, namely, Dasypus 

 Gigas, is so scarce that it has been seen but by very few. A 

 much more extensive variety of species in this remarkable 

 order of animals inhabited Brazil, in that remote period of 

 which I shall now proceed to treat ; and they have left re- 

 mains which, as records of the extraordinary conformation, 

 comparatively clumsy make, and gigantic size of the animals 

 when living, must excite our wonder and admiration. 



PART II. 



Having in my previous communication detailed at length the 

 circumstances under which the fossil bones occur in the Bra- 

 zilian caves, I shall now pass at once to a particular descrip- 

 tion of the species of Mammalia which they include. 



First Order, BRUTA, 



[In my former paper I adopted Cuvier's name for this order, 

 Edentata, or teethless animals : but with all my reverence 

 for the great man from whom this nomenclature proceeds, and 

 in spite of its almost universal adoption, I cannot any longer 

 conceal the se ious objections which the use of so improper 

 an appellation has ever excited in me ; since out of the great 

 number of species contained in this order, two only are with- 

 out teeth. Neither can we admit Oken's change of the name 



laire, under the name of Tatu verdade, but we have already seen that this 

 is the name of Dasypus longicaudus ; and as this animal varies exceeding^ly, 

 it may he easily considered as only a variety of this species. Azara's Ta- 

 tu-mulita, Tatu-velu, and Tatu-piehy, do not belong to the class of tropical 

 animals, as they are only found to the south of the tropics, never in Brazil. 



