Vol. XIII, pp. 1-8 January 31, 1899 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



NOTES ON THE NAKED-TAILED ARMADILLOS * 

 BY GERRIT S. MILLER, Jr. 



The following notes on the naked-tailed armadillos are the 

 result of an attempt to name some specimens belonging to the 

 United States National Museum, the Academy of Natural Sci- 

 ences of Philadelphia, the American Museum of Natural His- 

 tory, and Mr. Outram Bangs. The subject naturally divides 

 itself into four sections : 1, History of the generic and subgeneric 

 names ; 2, The genus Tatoua and its subgenera ; 3, The naked- 

 tailed armadillo of Central America, and 4, Comparison of three 

 small species of Tatoua. 



1. History of the Generic and Subgeneric Names. 



Wagler, in 1830, was the first author to recognize the naked-tailed ar- 

 madillos as a distinct genus. He called the grouj) Xenurus, unaware that, 

 four years earlier, this name had been used by Boie in Ornithology. The 

 large species then recently described as Dasypus gymnurus by Wied, but 

 previously named Dasypus unicinctus by Linnaeus, served as the type of 

 his new genus. 



Gray, in 1865 and 1869, divided Wagler' s genus into two subgenera, 

 the first containing the large species known to Wagler, the second the 

 small Dasyints ]ns]ndus described by Burmeister in 1854. To the second, 

 which he expressly states that he had never seen, he transferred the name 

 Xenurus in a restricted sense, while to the first he applied a new name, 

 Tatoua. Tatoua, thus exactly equivalent to Wagler' s Xeniirus, is there- 

 fore the first tenable generic name for the naked-tailed armadillos. 



In 1873 Gray again applied the name Xenurus to the large species, mak- 



* Published by permission of the Secretary of tlie Smithsonian Institution. 

 I— Biol. See. Wash., Vol. XIII, 1899 (1) 



