622 U. S. P. R. R. EXP. AND SURVEYS ZOOLOGY GENERAL REPORT. 



More active than the sloths, the armadillos are, nevertheless, ill fitted for rapid progression, 

 although they move with comparatively great quickness through loose soil. The limhs are 

 short and stout ; the hinder ones longest; the claws are long and well fitted for digging. The 

 muzzle, which in sloths is very short and blunt, is here elongated, sometimes to a very great 

 degree. Teeth are sometimes present, sometimes entirely wanting ; in the former case they 

 consist entirely of molars. A single species only has a tooth on either side of the upper jaw, 

 which, from its implantation in the intermaxillary, is to be considered as an incisor, although 

 in shape and lateral position it agrees altogether with the molars. The malar bone is simple, 

 or else entirely wanting. The stomach is not compound. The external covering consists either 

 of hair, of bony plates, or imbricated scales, but however varied in this respect, the internal 

 structure exhibits a marked conformity in the different genera. Their food consists of insects 

 and worms, obtained mostly by digging. 1 



There are two divisions of this family, one embracing genera with teeth, as Dasypus, Cldamy- 

 dophorus, and Orycteropus ; the genera of the other are entirely destitute of teeth in both jaws, 

 as Myrmecophaga and Manis, which are thus true Edentata, in the strictest sense of the term. 



1 Wagner, Suppl. Schreb. IV, 1844, 160. 



