THE AHMAB1LL6. 73 



Different species. 



cumber the soil. In cultivated countries they 

 soon disappear, and exist only in those remote 

 deserts where they have no enemies to oppose 

 them, and interrupt the promulgation of the race. 



Pere D'Abbeville says, there are six species of 

 the armadillo: but the principal difference be- 

 tween them consists in the number of bands, and 

 divisions in their armour : some having but three 

 bands between the large pieces, others six, eight, 

 nine, or even twelve. 



The number of their natural bands does not 

 depend on the age of the animal, for, in the 

 same species, the young and the adult have the 

 same number. 



In all the species the animal is protected by 

 an osseous consistency, which covers the head, 

 neck, back, and flanks, and even the tail, to the 

 very extremity. The shell which covers the up- 

 per part of the body, differs from that of the tor- 

 toise, in being composed of several pieces, which 

 lie in bands over the body, and, as in the tail of 

 a lobster, slide over each other, and in the same 

 manner are connected by an elastic yellow mem- 

 brane; by this means the armour easily gives 

 way to all the necessary inflexions. 



The only parts to which this armour does not 

 extend are the throat, breast, and belly; and 

 these are covered with a delicate white skin, not 

 unlike that of a fowl stripped of its feathers. On 

 a minute examination, those naked parts appear 



