CLASS I. MAMMALIA: ORDER 8. EDENTATA. 



465 



it- 



M' - 



the giaxt tatou. — (See p. 467.) 



tortoise-shell, and is hard and stiff, with a very slight elasticity, and is fastened by being attached 

 to the skin of the body. It is formed of numerous small many-sided plates, placed contiguous to 

 one another like mosaic or inlaid work. The buckler of the head, though thus composed of many 

 smaller plates, is formed into one solid piece of armor, appearing ornamented like mosaic. The 

 same may be said of the buckler over the shoulders, as well as that over the rump. 



The bands across the loins perform a most important function, for while they, like the buck- 

 lers, are composed of a series of bony pieces, they are connected with each other by flexible skin, 

 and being attached to the buckler before as well as that behind, they unite the whole, at the same 

 time allowing complete freedom to the motions of the animal. 



It is necessary, in order fully to comprehend the completeness of this system of defense, to state 

 that the buckler of the head projects back so as to cover the neck, which, in order to suit this ar- 

 rangement, is exceedingly short; it is also formed so as to lap over the edge of the contiguous 

 buckler across the shoulders, and in a manner not to interfere with it. As the movable bands 

 constitute that portion of the armor most easily used for adapting the whole to the size of tin 

 animal, they are not only movable, but variable in number and size. So that — as in man, if h'e 

 outgrows his coat, it may be pieced and enlarged — if the Armadillo gets too big fur his shell tin 

 bands are enlarged, or new ones formed to suit the emergency. In this curious arrangemenl 

 there is, perhaps, nothing more wonderful than in the ordinary processes of nature in clothing tin 

 common quadruped with hair or the bird with feathers, but as it is a departure from the general 

 system pursued in relation to this division of animated nature, it excites attention, anil rails upon 

 is to admire alike the resources of the Creative Power, and the perfectness of its work. 



The throat, breast, belly, and thighs of the Armadillo are naked, or covered with a thick gran- 

 dated skin, thinly famished with warts or tubercles, which give origin to a few coarse bristly 

 iairs. The commissures of the movable bands on the loins are likewise provided with a numbei 

 >f long hairs; but with this exception the body is covered only by its peculiar shell. The tail is 

 traight, round, thick, and pointed; it is adapted at the root to a notch or cavity in the postcribi 

 dge of the buckler of the croup, and, with the exception of one species, isjiniversally cm 

 kith bony rings, formed, like the rings of the bucklers, of numerous small gieces connected to- 

 ether, but capable of a certain degree of motion, and thus admitting of considerable flexibility In 

 lie tail itself. 



p The head of the Armadillos is flat and terminated by a pointed muzzle, which assfets them, Bk< 

 he snout of the hog and mole, to turn up the earth in search of roots and worms. Their ears 

 Vol. I. — 59 



• 



