18/4.] DR. J. E. GRAY ON MULETIA SEPTEMCINCTA. 245 



The animal is peculiar in having only six free regular dorsal rings, 

 and a seventh ring that is partly separated from the hinder dorsal 

 disk on the lower part of the sides. 



The tail is short, conical, thick, and depressed at the base, rather 

 more than half the length of the dorsal disk, and composed of 

 thirteen or fourteen rings, each consisting of two series of tesserae. 

 The ears are small and covered with very minute scales. 



The skeleton agrees very much in the form of the greater number 

 of bones with that of the Tatou noir {Tatusia peba), figured by 

 Cuvier (Oss. Foss. v. partii. t. x.), and differs chiefly from it in the 

 breadth of the ribs, in the shortness of the tail, which is not two 

 thirds of the length of the body, the shortness of the thirteen ver- 

 tebrae of which it is composed, and in the great width of the lateral 

 processes of the first six caudal vertebrae, the first of which is as 

 broad as the sacrum ; they gradually diminish in breadth as they 

 proceed towards the end. 



The tail of the Tatou noir {Tatusia peba) consists of twenty-two 

 or twenty-three vertebrae, and has much smaller lateral processes, 

 and is much longer than the body and head. 



The skull is 2 inches 8 lines long, and 1 inch 2 lines wide at the 

 zygomatic arch. The lachrymal bone is triangular, the lower side 

 forming the front part of the keel of the zygomatic process. The 

 nasal bones are slender, attenuated behind. The upper jaw has 

 six teeth on each side, the front one slightly directed forwards ; the 

 lower jaw has seven teeth on each side, the two front ones more 

 slender and directed forwards. 



Cuvier, in his 'Ossemens Fossiles' (v. p. 118) refers to this 

 species the Armadillo noticed by Belon (Observations, p. 467) and 

 Aldrovandi (Quadrup. Digit, p. 489); but I much doubt their 

 knowing a species that appears to be confined to the pampas of South 

 America, and believe that the resemblance depends on the rudeness 

 of old figures and descriptions. 



Schreber, in his * Saugethiere,' 1775, describes a species which he 

 considers to be the Busypus septemcinctus of Linnaeus (Syst. Nat. 

 p. 54), and he refers to a plate, t. lxxii., which is marked by mistake 

 D.sexcinctus, Linn., quite different from the species which he figures 

 under the same name in t. lxxi. b. The figure moderately well 

 represents this species ; but the body has been elongated in stuffing, 

 and the tail is too slender at the base ; but this occurs also in the 

 specimen in the Museum. 



D'Azara (Hist. Nat. Quadrup. 1801, ii. p. 186), under the name 

 of Tatou moulet, says it is called Tatou m'bouriqua, on account of its 

 having straight and parallel ears like a mule, but observes the ears 

 are not so large as in the other species. M. Desmarest, who inserted 

 it in the scientific catalogues, gave it the Latin name of Dasypus 

 hybridus, I suppose as a translation of Azara's name; but why it 

 should be called a mule or hybrid I cannot conceive, as no species 

 can be more distinct in external appearance and anatomical cha- 

 racters. It cannot be a mule or hybrid between any two known species, 

 as D'Azara justly observes. 



