OltDEIt EDENTATA- 295 



derable* extent in tracing out a fancied alliance, or connect- 

 ing link, between very many different genera; indeed, gene- 

 rally, it is hardly possible to select a genus without finding 

 some one or more species in it which approximates some 

 other; intermediate genera placed by their describers first 

 with one genus and then with another, to both of which 

 they may have considerable general analogies, are eventually 

 separated from both, and found to be properly distinct, 

 though intermediate. Thus we have already noticed canine 

 Cats, feline Weasels, Hyaena Dogs, Hysena Civets, fyc. fyc. 



But the genus Dasypus, all the species of Armadillos, 

 stand perfectly insulated ; they exhibit all the characters 

 of a creation perfectly distinct, and, except as to the general 

 characters of mammiferous quadrupeds, perfectly sui 

 generis. There is no break in the whole circle of them, no 

 deviation, or leaning towards any other organized form ; 

 the boldest conjecture 'will hardly venture to guess at any 

 other than a separate creation for these creatures, and a 

 distinct allocation in South America. 



The confined natural habitat of this genus is also the more 

 remarkable, when it is considered that from the. facility 

 with which it seems to endure removal even to our latitudes, 

 there is much reason to conclude that its nature would 

 become reconciled to a transportation to parts very distant 

 from-where it is now exclusively indigenous ; and, therefore, 

 that its present confined habitat is not altogether the result 

 of its physical necessities. 



When the type of a new creation is discovered, it seems 

 generally to follow, as our knowledge of it is extended, 

 that such creation is not of the confined character we at 

 first imagined. Thus it is now ascertained, that the 

 pouched animals, although artificially placed merely as a 

 division of the flesh-eaters, includes not merely several 

 genera, but genera in fact of very opposite characters, and 

 that but for the mischief attendant on multiplying divi- 



