188 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF MAMMALIA. 



large size excepting the Dasypiis gigas, which itself is 

 but a pigray to the extinct glyptodon. 



These animals are burrowing in their habits, with thick, 

 short, powerful limbs, and a flattened, broad, stout body, 

 covered above with plates and bands of horny armour. 

 The head is broad between the eyes, whence it runs to 

 a pointed muzzle ; the mouth is small : the teeth are 

 cylindrical, feeble, destitute of true roots, set apart from 

 each other, and mutually fit, when the jaws are closed, 

 into the intervals. The tongue is smooth, slender, and 

 moderately extensible : it is most probably endowed with 

 the sense of taste in a high degree, as we have observed, 

 especially in one species, the Dasypus peha, the animal 

 touched with it whatever was presented by way of food ; 

 and we know that it is lubricated abundantly with a glu- 

 tinous fluid, poured out chiefly from the submaxillary 

 gland. (See ' Zool. Proceeds.' for 1831, p. 144.) 



The portions of armour which cover these animals 

 consist of a triangular or oval plate on the top of the 

 head, or rather on the chaflfron, its posterior margin pro- 

 jecting over the neck ; a large buckler over the shoulders, 

 and a similar buckler over the haunches ; while between 

 these solid portions there intervenes a series of transverse 

 bands overlapping each other's edges, and allowing to 

 the body due freedom of motion. Each of these sepa- 

 rate portions consists of a multitude of small parts, all 

 consolidated together, giving the idea of what is termed 

 mosaic-work, especially on the head and shoulders, the 

 pattern differing in different species. The limbs, which 

 are short and thick, are almost entirely concealed by the 

 edges of this armour, but the feet, which are unprotected 

 by it, are covered by a hard tuberculated skin. The tail 

 is covered with a series of calcareous rings ; the skin of 

 the under surface of the body is very rough and beset 

 with long scattered hairs ; and from between the joints 

 of the rings and plates of the dorsal armour there issue 

 hairs of the same kind, more numerous in young than 

 adult individuals. In some species, however, as the 

 mataco {Dasypus apa?), whose armour is peculiarly 

 thick and solid, no hair is to be discovered. 



