4 Miller — Notes on the Naked-tailed Armadillos. 



So far as I know, this completes the published history of the naked- 

 tailed armadillo in Central America. I may add, however, that Mr. Jos6 

 C. Zeledon lias recently informed me that the armadillo de zopilote is well 

 known in Costa Rica, where the worthlessness of its flesh for food is every- 

 where recognized. 



I have recenth^ compared the two Central American specimens with 

 one from Santa Marta, Colombia, and two from Matto Grosso, Brazil. 

 The latter prove to be representatives of the subgenus Tatoua, while all 

 of the others are referable to ZIpliila. The Costa Rican and Honduras 

 specimens are precisely alike in all important characters, but they differ 

 in many details from the Colombian animal, which in all probability is 

 the same as Gray's Ziphila luguhris. While the fact that Gray's type came 

 from Brazil throws some doubt on this determination of the specimen 

 from Colombia, it does not lessen the piobal^ility that the Central Ameri- 

 can Ziphila is distinct from the one hitherto described. The Central 

 American animal may stand as : 



Tatoua (Ziphila) centralis sp. nov. 



1897. 



1897 



1869. Dai^j/pus gymnurus Frantzius, 

 AViegmann's Archiv fi'ir 

 Naturgeschichte, XXXV, 

 Bd. I, p. .'509 (not Basypiis 

 gijmratnis Illiger, 1815). 

 1 89."). Xenuni.'i h ispidus True, Pi'oc. 

 U. S. National Museum, 

 XVIII, p. 4:55 (not Dasy- 

 piis liifipidiis Burmeister, 

 1854). 

 Xenurus gipinnu'Hs Alfaro, 

 Mammiferos de Costa 

 Rica, p. 46. 

 Xoiurus gymmiriis Allen, 

 Bull. Am. Mus.Nat. Hist., 

 IX, p. 43. 

 Type, adult 9 (skin and skull). 

 No. iUU, United States National 

 jNIuseum, collected at Chamelicon, 

 Honduras, January 8, 1891, by 

 Erich Wittkiigel. 



Genercd characters. — Smaller than 

 Tatoua {Ziphila) lugubris (Gray) ; 

 cheeks with fewer scales ; plates 

 in central rings of carapace more 

 numerous (29-31, instead of 27) ; 

 occipital region of skull much less elevated ; zygomata when viewed from 

 above nearly parallel with each other and with main axis of skull; 

 hauiular i)rocesses of ptrygoids neither thickened nor bent inward at tips. 



Fiii. 1. — Heail from side: upper figure, 

 Tatonn {Tatoua) hi.spiila ; lower figiu'o, T. 

 (Ziphila) centralis (type). % nat. size. 



