THE ARMADILLOS 



1389 



conical, and covered above with warty protuberances. The teeth, of which there are 

 eight in the upper and eight or nine in the lower jaw, are small and nearly cylin- 

 drical; those in the middle of the series being larger than at the two extremities. 

 The neck is short and thick, and the body long and depressed, becoming gradually 

 wider from the shoulders to the abruptly-truncated hinder extremity. The limbs 

 are short, and the front pair much more powerfully made than the hinder ones. 

 Both are provided with five toes; but whereas in the fore-limbs these are connected 

 nearly to the bases of the claws, in the hind-pair they are entirely free. The second 

 claw in the fore-foot is the largest, and the fifth the smallest; while the claws of all 

 the hind-toes are comparatively small. The tail, which protrudes through a notch 

 in the lower border of the bony shield on the hind-quarters, is short and inflexible, 

 terminating in a flattened and pointed paddle-like expansion, and covered with a 





THE PICHICIAGO. 

 (One-half natural size.) 



leather skin, dotted over with small horny plates. The whole of the upper surface 

 of the body is covered with a continuous shield, or mantle, of quadrangular horny 

 scales, underlain by very thin, bony plates. This mantle commences in a point a 

 short distance above the muzzle, and gradually increases in width to the hinder 

 extremity of the body, where it is abruptly truncated. Instead of being firmly at- 

 tached to the body throughout its extent, the mantle is only affixed along the line 

 of the backbone, and consequently lies quite loosely on the hairy sides of the body; 

 on the head it is, however, firmly joined to the bones. There are usually about 

 twenty transverse rows of plates in the mantle, and while the number of plates in 

 each row at the hinder extremity of the head varies from seven to eight, on the loins 

 there may be as many as twenty-four in a row. The abruptly-truncated hinder ex- 

 tremity of the body is protected by a solid shield, composed of welded plates of 

 bone, overlain by thin scales of horn. This shield is slightly convex, and forms 



