74 



toises. In the Armadillo the first pair of ribs are broader than Ūiej 

 are long (Owen, Zool. Proc. ii. p. 135). 



2. In the large number of the ribs of the Unau, we have what 

 Prof. Owen has termed a lacertine character (on Mylodon, p. 166), 



3. Likę the Tortoises, &c. amongst Reptiles, the Anteaters and 

 Pangolins are deprived of teeth ; ■vvhilst those Edentata which are 

 fumished •vvith them approximate to the dentition of some of the 

 Keptilia in the uniform character of the series ; and in the subgenua 

 Priodontes of Fred. Cuvier in the extremely large number, namely 

 eighty-eight or ninety-six in all. 



4. The Edentata, likę the Reptiles, are remarkable for the pro- 

 pensity to develope coats of mail of various kinds ; sometimes conti- 

 nuous ; in other instances, of detached and separate scales ; some- 

 times, to continue the simile, likę plate-armour ; sometimes likę 

 scale-armour. The Arraadillos, the Chlamyphorus, the Pangolins, 

 and some of the extinct Megatheroids, exhibit this amongst the 

 Edentates ; whilst fdmost all the Reptiles partalce in measure of thia 

 character. 



5. The Anteater and Manis are destitute of the power of emitting 

 sounds (Blumenbach's Anatomy, translation by Lawrence, 1807, 

 p. 278). This incapacity approximates thera to the Reptiles, and par- 

 ticularly distinguishes them from Birds and most of the Mammalia. 

 In this character ho\vever most of the Marsupiata paitake. 



6. "VVaterton, i n his ' Wanderings,' furnishes us 'vvith a highly 

 graphic description of the habits of the Myrmecophaga jubata. From 

 the extracts I shall make, the simUarity of this animal to the Reptiles 

 \vill be manifest in three important points, viz. the slovvness of its 

 movements, the tenacity \\dth which it retsins any object which it has 

 seized, the length of time \vhich it can pass uninjured without food ; 

 and probably a fourth — the tenacity of life and muscular power. The 

 Tortoises exhibit these phsenomena of muscular irritability perhaps as 

 \vell as any genus amongst the Reptiles. 



" He {Myrmecophaga jubnta) cannot travel fast, for man is superior 



to him in speed Wlienever he seizes an animal with these for- 



midable "weapons (his claws), he hugs it close to his body and keeps 

 it there till it dies through pressure or through want of food. Nor 

 does the Antbear in the meantime sufFer much from want of aliment, 

 for it is a well-known fact that he can go longer without food than 

 any other animal, excepting perhaps the Land Tortoise. .... .The 



Indians have a great dread of coming in contact with this animal, 

 and after disabling him in the chase, never think of approaching him 

 till he is quite dead." (Waterton's Wanderings in South America, 

 171.) 



That muscular irritability exists to a similar estent in the Sloths 

 ■will be proved by the following extract : — 



" Cor motum suum valdissime retinebat postąuam exemptum erat 

 a corpore, per semihorium ; exempto corde, ceterisąue visceribus, 

 muito post se movebat et pedes lente contrahebat sicut dormituriens 

 solet." (Pison. Hist. Bras. p. 322, ąuoted by BufiFon ; translation by 

 Smellie, 1791, vol. vii. p. 161.) 



