DASYPODID& i 9 7 



horny covering is of a pinkish colour, and its silky hair snow 

 white. It is rare, and its habits are but little known. A second 

 species, C. retusa, from Bolivia, has been described by Burmeister. 

 It is of rather larger size, and has the dorsal shield attached; to the 

 skiu of the back as far as its edge, instead of only along the median 

 line. 



Subfamily Dasypodinse. Fore feet usually with all five digits 

 developed and with nails, though the first and fifth may be 

 suppressed. The first and second long and slender, with the 

 normal number and relative length of phalanges. The others stout, 

 with short broad metacarpals, and the phalanges greatly reduced 

 in length and generally in number by coalescence. The ungual 

 phalanx of the third very large, that of the others gradually 

 diminishing to the fifth. Dasypus, as now restricted, has the 

 most normal form of manus, but the modifications so markedly 

 developed in all the others (and culminating in Tolypeutes) are fore- 

 shadowed, as it were, in it. Ears wide apart. Mammae one pair, 

 pectoral. 



Dasypus. 1 Teeth ^ or --, of which the anterior in the upper 

 jaw is usually implanted in the premaxillary bone. The series of 

 teeth extends posteriorly some distance behind the anterior root of 

 the zygoma, almost level with the hinder edge of the palate. They 

 are large, subcylindrical, slightly compressed, diminishing in size 

 towards each end of the series ; the anterior two in the mandible 

 much smaller, and more compressed than the others. Cranial 

 portion of the skull broad and depressed. Facial portion triangular, 

 broad in front and much depressed. Auditory bulla completely 

 ossified, perforated on the inner side by the carotid canal, and 

 continued externally into an elongated bony meatus auditorius, with 

 its aperture directed upwards and backwards. (In all the remain- 

 ing genera of Dasypodince the tympanic bone is a mere half ring, 

 loosely attached to the cranium.) Mandible with a high ascending 

 ramus, broad transversely-placed condyle, and high slender coronoid 

 process. Vertebras : C 7, D 11-12, L 3, S 8, C 17-19. Head broad 

 and flat above. Muzzle obtusely pointed. Ears of moderate size or 

 rather small, placed laterally, far apart. Body broad and depressed. 

 Carapace with six or seven movable bands between the scapular 

 and pelvic shields, each plate, or scute, being marked by a regular 

 ellipse formed of widely separated punctures. Tail shorter than 

 the body, tapering, covered with plates forming distinct rings near 

 the base. Fore feet with five toes ; the first much more slender 

 than the others, and with a smaller ungual phalanx and nail ; the 

 second, though the longest, also slender. The third, fourth, and 

 fifth gradually diminishing in length, all armed with very strong, 

 slightly curved, compressed claws, sloping away from an elevated 

 1 Linn. Syst. Nat., 12th ed. vol. i. p. 54 (1766). 



