326 SLOTHS. 



favourable attachment for producing the horizontal triturating 

 movements of the lower jaw. 



With reference to the diet of the existing Armadillos, Dr. Lund 

 states, that those which he kept in his house manifested an extra- 

 ordinary predilection for putrid flesh, as well as a remarkable skill 

 in managing it ; and, that he always found in the stomachs of the 

 wild Armadillos numerous remains of insects, particularly of beetles 

 and centipedes, whence he concludes, that the recent Armadillos 

 are insectivorous and carnivorous. The maintenance of the dental 

 series in both the existing species and the great extinct phytipha- 

 gous Armadillos is effected, as the wide conical persistent basal pulp- 

 cavity demonstrates, by constant renovation of the matrix, which, 

 by its calcification produces the different dental substances. 



SLOTHS. 



137. — Of the leaf-eating species of the order Bruta very few, 

 and these the most diminutive of the tribe, now exist. They are 

 called Sloths, Tardigrades, and Bradypodes, from their inability to 

 move otherwise than slowly and with difficulty on the ground ; 

 but they are excellent climbers, for which their organization es- 

 pecially befits them. 



If we restrict our survey of the dental system to existing 

 Mammals, that of the Sloths appears anomalous, both as respects 

 the number, the form and the intimate composition of the teeth. 

 But when the bradypodal dentition is viewed in connection with 

 that of the extinct phyllophagous Bruta, the repetition of all its 

 essential characters, under various minor modifications, in the 

 already known species and genera of those once numerous and 

 gigantic quadrupeds, gives it as important a place in the classifica- 

 tion of the Mammalian teeth, as that of the dentition of the pro- 

 boscidian Pachyderms or Ruminants. 



The following are the common and constant characters of the 

 dentition of the phyllophagous Bruta, both recent and extinct: — 

 Teeth implanted in the maxillary, never in the intermaxillary 

 bones; few in number, not exceeding H (1) j composed of a large 

 central axis of vascular dentine, Avith a thin investment of hard 



(1) Unless the Megatherium had ten molars in the lower as in the upper jaw. 



