266 CLASS MAMMALIA. 



SUPPLEMENT TO THE ORDER EDENTATA. 



The order Edentata, or toothless animals, (that is, either 

 partially or altogether so,) includes but a very few genera, 

 and these again but a very limited number of species ; they 

 are, however, decidedly among the most curious of the 

 mammiferous tribes. 



The characters of the order, although before mentioned 

 in the text, may, for convenience, be thus briefly recapitu- 

 lated. 



Incisive teeth wanting in most of the species *, some 

 with canines and cheek-teeth, others with cheek-teeth 

 alone, and a few absolutely toothless ; toes varying in 

 number, generally armed with powerful nails ; orbits and 

 temporal fossae united. 



The anomalies and singularities of the component species 

 of this order are so various, that it seems necessary to pro- 

 ceed at once to a consideration of the genera, without any 

 further previous collective observations on the whole. 



The genus Bradypus is not less remarkable for the 

 singularity of organization and external form in the animals 

 which it comprehends, than for the habits of these animals 

 themselves, which have procured them the peculiar desig- 

 nation of Sloths. 



Linnaeus places the Bradypus in his order of Bruta, with 

 the Edentata, properly so called, and with the Morse, the 

 Elephant, and the Rhinoceros. Erxleben classed them be- 

 tween the Lemurs and the Didelphis, on the one side, and 



* One, at least, of the Armadillos it is now ascertained has these teeth. 



