ORDER EDENTATA. 291 



ral than they are between the latter, so that these last-men- 

 tioned furrows are effaced by the friction of the plates on 

 the ground, whence the surface of the plates changes, ac- 

 cording to the age of the animal. From the posterior edge 

 of each plate of the moveable bands spring three or four 

 white hairs. The skin of the lower parts is covered with 

 small tubercles, which become plates analogous to those of 

 the upper parts of the animal on all the feet ; the sole of all 

 the feet is naked, and entirely smooth, without those tuber- 

 cles generally observed on/the naked sole of the feet of most 

 plantigrade quadrupeds ; the skin is of a violet-brown 

 colour. 



The organs of motion in the Encoubert are essentially 

 constituted for digging ; the shoulder and the arm of the 

 anterior limbs are covered by the scapular buckler, so that 

 they cannot be seen; the fore-arm is thick and short; the 

 carpus is terminated by five unequal toes, armed with 

 strong compressed nails, round above, flat below, and with 

 trenchant edges; these toes, which are short and thick, 

 are united, as far as the last phalanx, by a strong light 

 membrane ; the nail on the third toe is the longest and 

 strongest. 



The thigh of the hind legs is also hidden by the buckler 

 over the crupper; the leg and the tarsus are thick and 

 short, terminated by five short thick toes ; the nails of 

 which are not so long as those on the fore-feet, but of the 

 same thickness, convex above, and flat underneath ; all 

 these toes are also united, as far as the last phalanx, by a 

 membrane. The tail is strong, round, thick, at its in- 

 sertion, and terminating in a point. 



Smell appears to be the only sense which is acute in 

 these animals ; the rest are obtuse, but the perfection of 

 this affords a compensation for the deficiency of the others; 

 the nostrils open at the end of the muzzle. 



