TEE ARMADILLOS. 181 



CHAPTER III. 



THE ARMADILLO FAMILY. 



The Armour-plates How the Shields are formed Their connection with the Body Description of the Animals Mode of 

 Walking Diet Skeleton Adaptation of their Limbs for Burrowing Classification THE GREAT ARMADILLO 

 Appearance Great Burrower THE TATOUAY THE POYOU, OH YELLOW-FOOTED ARMADILLO THE PELUDO, OR 

 HAIRY ARMADILLO THE PICHIY THE PEBA, OR BLACK TATOO THE MULE ARMADILLO THE BALL ARMADILLO 

 Dr. Murie's Account of its Habits Description The Muscles by which it Rolls itself up and Unrolls itself THE 

 PICHICIAGO Concluding Remarks : Classification of the Order, Fossil Edentates, the Allied Species of Manis in South 

 Africa and Hindostan. 



THESE South American animals are more or less covered with a hard bony crust, separated into 

 shields and bands, which are more or less movable, owing to the presence of special skin-muscles. 

 In the most perfectly ai-moured there are four distinct shields and a set of bands, a certain 

 amount of motion being possible between their edges. Of the shields, one covers the head, another 

 the back of the neck, a third protects the shoulders like a great cape, and the fourth arches 

 over the rump like a half dome, and is, in some, attached by its deep structure to the bones of 

 the hip and haunch. The movable bands cover the back and loins, and are between the third 

 and fourth shields. The tail may further be invested by incomplete bony rings, and scattered 

 scales, and others are distributed over the limbs. This covering is, according to Professor Huxley, 

 strictly comparable to part of the armour of the Crocodile ; and the Armadillos are the only 

 Mammals possessing such structure. The shields and bands are formed of many scales, or scutes, 

 which are ossifications of the skin, and they may be of many kinds of shape four, or many-sided 

 being united by sutures, and they are incapable of separate motion. The shields and bands, however, 

 vary much in their number, size, and perfectness in the different animals, which, being armoured, the 

 Spaniards called Armadillos ; and, indeed, the number of bands in the back and loin division varies in 

 individuals of the same species. These bands cover the flanks, and, with the shields fore and aft, 

 protect the limbs, which are often more or less hidden by a growth of hair. The bands, moreover, by 

 being movable one on the other, enable the rest of the armour to accommodate itself to the motions 

 of the body, so that some roll themselves up, as in a ball shape. There may be few or many bands 

 present, and the extreme numbers are three and thirteen. The Armadillos are of different sizes, and 

 whilst the smallest may be only ten inches in length without the tail, the largest are more than three feet 

 long. The head is long, and broad at the neck, the ears are usually long, the neck is short, the body is 

 long, round, and low, and the length of tail varies much in different kinds. Where the head shield 

 joins that of the shoulders, there is a space for the movement of the short neck ; but this is protected 

 by a backward projection from the head shield. The throat, under parts, and thighs are not pro- 

 tected by armour, except here and there by small plates in the skin, or by a granulated state of it ; and 

 they are naked or hairy. Even between the bands on the back there are often long hairs, and the 

 tail fits into a kind of notch in the last shield of the body, and its plates are close in almost all Arma- 

 dillos, but not united. So that much more motion is given to it and to the body than might be 

 expected by the muscles during their action beneath the more or less soldered bony skin. The flat top 

 to the head, and the long muzzle, are useful to the Armadillos in their burrowing, and this is assisted 

 by short and strong limbs armed with powerful claws. Some of the Armadillos are even capable of 

 running with some speed ; and the little Six-banded Armadillo, or 

 Poyou, and the Matico, are very restless and active in captivity. 

 With one exception, these animals move with the flat of their feet 

 and hands on the ground ; all have five hind claws, but there is 

 some variation in the number of the fore claws, which may be 

 four or five. They have simple cylindrical molar teeth, which, 

 according to the species, are from seven or eight to twentv-five 



, . , ,, . . BOXES OF CLAW OF GREAT ARMADILLO. 



on each side of each jaw, and they are separate, standing apart 



from one another. Moreover, they are so arranged that when the mouth is closed, the upper 

 teeth fit into the spaces between the under ones, and the under teeth into those of the upper, so that 

 their grinding surfaces wear down into ridges. In one kind, there are some teeth in the pre-maxillary 

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