EDENTATA. 103 



so much inclined to the sides, that they cannot approximate their knees. 

 Their gait is the necessary effect of such a disproportioned structure. They 

 live in trees, and never remove from the one they are on until they have 

 stripped it of every leaf, so painful to them is the requisite exertion to reach 

 another. It is even asserted that to avoid the trouble of a regular descent, 

 they let themselves fall from a branch. The female produces but a single 

 young one at a birth, which she carries on her back. 



Bradypuc tridactylus, L. (The Ai'. ) A species in which sluggishness, 

 and all the details of the organization which produce it, are carried to the 

 highest degree. The thumb and the little toe, reduced to small rudiments, 

 are hidden under the skin, and soldered to the metatarsus and metacarpus; 

 the clavicle, also reduced to a rudiment, is firmly united to the acromion. 

 The arms are double the length of the legs; the hair on the head, back and 

 limbs is long, coarse and non-elastic, something like dried hay, which gives 

 it a most hideous aspect. Its colour is grey, the back being frequently spot- 

 ted with white and brown. It is as large as a Cat, and is the only^maminifer- 

 ous animal known which has nine cervical vertebrae. 



Fossil skeletons of two Edentata of great size have been discov- 

 ered in America, one of which, the MEGATHERIUM, has a head very 

 similar to that of the Sloths, but deficient as to canini, and approach- 

 ing in other parts of the skeleton, partly to the Sloths, and partly to 

 the Ant-eaters. It is twelve feet long, and six or seven high. The 

 other, the MEGALONYX, is rather smaller, and the toes are the only 

 parts of it that are well known, but they strongly resemble those of 

 the preceding. 



The second tribe comprehends the 



EDENTATA ORDINARIA, 



Or the Ordinary Edentata with a pointed muzzle. Some of them 

 still have cheek teeth. They form two genera. 



DASYPUS, Lin. 



The Armadillos are very remarkable among the Mammalia, by the scaly 

 and hard shell formed of compartments resembling little paving stones, 

 which covers their head and body, and frequently their tail. This sub- 

 stance forms one shield over the forehead, a second very krge and convex 

 over the shoulders, a third on the croup similar to the second, and between 

 the two latter several parallel and movable bands, which allow the body to 

 bend. The tail is sometimes furnished with successive rings, and at others, 

 like the legs, merely with tubercles. These animals have large ears, and 

 sometimes four, and at others five great nails before, but always five behind. 

 They dig burrows, and live partly on vegetables, and partly on insects and 



