DASYVPODIDAZ 197 
horny covering is of a pinkish colour, and its silky hair snow 
white. It is rare, and its habits are but little known. A second 
species, C. retusa, from Bolivia, has been described by Burmeister. 
It is of rather larger size, and has the dorsal shield attached: to the 
skin of the back as far as its edge, instead of only along the median 
line. 
Subfamily Dasypodinz.—Fore feet usually with all five digits 
developed and with nails, though the first and fifth may be 
suppressed. The first and second long and slender, with the 
normal number and relative length of phalanges. The others stout, 
with short broad metacarpals, and the phalanges greatly reduced 
in length and generally in number by coalescence. The ungual 
phalanx of the third very large, that of the others gradually 
diminishing to the fifth. Dasypus, as now restricted, has the 
most normal form of manus, but the modifications so markedly 
developed in all the others (and culminating in Tolypeutes) are fore- 
shadowed, as it were, in it. Ears wide apart. Mamme one pair, 
pectoral. 
Dasypus..—Teeth 7% or #, of which the anterior in the upper 
jaw is usually implanted in the premaxillary bone. The series of 
teeth extends posteriorly some distance behind the anterior root of 
the zygoma, almost level with the hinder edge of the palate. They 
are large, subcylindrical, slightly compressed, diminishing in size 
towards each end of the series; the anterior two in the mandible 
much smaller, and more compressed than the others. Cranial 
portion of the skull broad and depressed. Facial portion triangular, 
broad in front and much depressed. Auditory bulla completely 
ossified, perforated on the inner side by the carotid canal, and 
continued externally into an elongated bony meatus auditorius, with 
its aperture directed upwards and backwards. (In all the remain- 
ing genera of Dasypodine the tympanic bone is a mere half ring, 
loosely attached to the cranium.) Mandible with a high ascending 
ramus, broad transversely-placed condyle, and high slender coronoid 
process. Vertebre: C7, D11-12,L3,88, 017-19. Head broad 
and flat above. Muzzle obtusely pointed. Ears of moderate size or 
rather small, placed laterally, far apart. Body broad and depressed. 
Carapace with six or seven movable bands between the scapular 
and pelvic shields, each plate, or scute, being marked by a regular 
ellipse formed of widely separated punctures. Tail shorter than 
the body, tapering, covered with plates forming distinct rings near 
the base. Fore feet with five toes; the first much more slender 
than the others, and with a smaller ungual phalanx and nail; the 
second, though the longest, also slender. The third, fourth, and 
fifth gradually diminishing in length, all armed with very strong, 
slightly curved, compressed claws, sloping away from an elevated 
1 Linn. Syst. Nat., 12th ed. vol. i. p. 54 (1766). 
