ORDER EDENTATA. 279 



individuals. They perfectly accord in all their relative pro- 

 portions ; but when it is considered that their differences 

 of colour are so great (an effect, by the way, not likely to 

 ensue with animals of the same species, whose habitat is 

 very circumscribed,) and still more, that while the body 

 and head of one measures two feet all but one inch, the 

 other does not exceed ten inches, and that both are adults, 

 if seems difficult to conclude that they are mere varieties of 

 a single species. 



We have now laid before our readers every thing im- 

 portant in the description and natural history of these very 

 singular animals; if we have indulged in greater minute- 

 ness of detail concerning them than we generally permit 

 ourselves to do, their extraordinary conformation and 

 habits must be our apology ; and, in fact, such minuteness 

 was, in some measure, requisite, to enable the reader to 

 understand the drift of a few general reflections, with 

 which we shall venture to close the subject. 



We have seen, from the description now given, that the 

 Unau and the Ai, though congeners, are as decidedly dis- 

 tinct in species as it is possible for two animals to be. To 

 say nothing of external distinctions, there is a different 

 conformation of the viscera in many essential points ; but 

 what constitutes the most striking mark of distinction 

 between these animals is the circumstance of the Unau pos- 

 sessing forty-six ribs, while the Ai has but twenty-eight ; 

 this, as Buffon remarks, in an animal whose body is so 

 remarkably short, is, or rather appears to our limited 

 faculties to be, an error or excess of nature. Even of the 

 largest animals, and those whose body is the longest in 

 proportion to their breadth, there is none in whose skeleton 

 such a number of ribs are to be found. The Elephant has 

 but forty ; the Horse, thirty-six ; the Badger, thirty ; the 

 Dog, twenty-six ; and Man, twenty-four. This difference 

 of internal structure, undoubtedly, removes the Unau and 



