392 



THE TOOTHLESS ANIMALS. 



mal. The native sportsmen affirmed that it equaled 

 a large Pig in size, and this statement seemed to be 

 borne out by the diameter of the entrance to these 

 burrows and still more by the size of the skins of 

 tails which the prince found among the Botocudos. 

 The Botocudos of the Rio Grande de Belmonte 

 had speaking tubes, which were plainly called "Tatu 

 tails," and were fourteen and one-half inches long 

 and three and one-fifth inches in diameter at the 

 larger end. 

 The Giant Tatu, Later investigations show that the 

 a Monster Giant Tatu (Priodon gigas) attains a 

 Species. body length of three feet or over, 

 the tail measuring about half as much; Kappler 

 gives its weight as ninety pounds. The entire cere- 

 bral dome of the skull is covered by very irregular 

 bony plates. The shoulder part of the armor con- 

 sists of ten bands, another row being interpolated on 

 the lower portion of the flanks; twelve or thirteen 

 zones consisting of mobile scutes follow; the pos- 

 terior buckler contains sixteen or seventeen rows. 

 The plates may be square, rectangular, or may have 

 five or six angles, and the hindmost rows of the 

 posterior shield are irregular in shape, the tail is 

 covered by square bony plates of irregular thick- 

 ness. Probably the most remarkable anatomical 

 feature of the animal, however, is its dentition. The 

 upper jaw on each side contains from twenty-four to 

 twenty-six teeth, the under jaw in each row from 

 twenty-two to twenty-four, of which several are 

 frequently lacking, however. Still there are from 

 ninety to one hundred fully developed teeth or rudi- 

 mentary organs, performing the office of teeth; but 

 in the anterior portion of the rows they are only 

 thin plates, gradually assuming stouter proportions 

 toward the rear. What use the Giant Tatu finds for 

 all these teeth is quite a mystery, as its food, so fair 

 as is at present known, does not differ from that of 

 the other species. 



THE BICHOCIEGO. 



Harlan, an American, first discovered a very re- 

 markable member of the family, the Bichociego 

 {Chlamydophorus truncatus), in 1824, near Mendoza in 

 the west of the Argentine Republic; the discovery 

 was a surprise to the natives, who had hardly a sus- 

 picion of its existence. For a long time two speci- 

 mens only were known, kept in the collections of 

 Philadelphia and London, which could fortunately 

 be examined most closely. Later on others were 

 obtained and accounts of the inner anatomical struc- 

 ture and external appearance could be accurately 

 given. The Bichociego is justly regarded as a rep- 

 resentative of a distinct species, though it differs 

 from the heretofore described Armadillos more in 

 the peculiarities of its armor than in its inner ana- 

 tomical structure. 



The Bichociego The Bichociego shows the most er- 

 an Abnormal ratic deviation of shape and belongs 

 Species. to the most remarkable group in the 

 entire animal world in respect to the horny, nearly 

 leathery armor covering its body. This strange 

 creature is a real dwarf when it is compared with 

 even the smallest of the known Armadillos, while 

 it forcibly reminds one of a mole in respect to its 

 shape, and still more so in regard to its habits. Its 

 head is short, broad in the posterior portion, taper- 

 ing toward the front and terminating in a rather 

 short, truncated muzzle. The eyes are small and 

 hidden under the hair which falls over them. The 

 ears, which lie close to the head, are devoid of any 



external conch. The dentition is normal. Incisors 

 and canines are absent, and the molars, eight in 

 number on each side of the upper and lower jaws, 

 are composed of pulp encased in a layer of enamel, 

 devoid of roots and hollow in the lower half ; they 

 afe of cylindrical shape, and with the exception of 

 the first two in each jaw, which are somewhat 

 pointed, their grinding surface is flattened. The 

 legs are short; the fore limbs are very sturdy, 

 clumsy and nearly mole-shaped, while the hinder 

 ones are much weaker, ending in long, narrow feet. 

 All its toes bear blunt-pointed claws, those of the 

 fore-feet being very large and stout, forming power- 

 ful tools for digging. The tail which is set on at 

 the lower edge of the armor covering the hinder 

 part of the body, in a notch, makes a sudden curve 

 and is folded along the under surface between the 

 hind legs, lying close to the abdomen. 



External Appear- The whole upper surface of the body 

 ance of the is covered by a horny shield, some- 

 Bichociego. what resembling leather in charac- 

 ter, rather thick and less flexible than sole-leather, 

 beginning on the head near the tip of the snout, 

 extending all over the back to the rump, where it 

 ceases abruptly, the animal being thereby endowed 

 with a truncated, and as it were, mutilated appear- 

 ance. This armor is composed mostly of regular* 

 transverse rows or zones, consisting principally of 

 rectangular shaped and partly of rhombic, or even 

 irregular, hump-shaped shields; it is not connected 

 everywhere so firmly with the skin of the body as 

 the armor of the Armadillos proper, but for the 

 greater part, lies but loosely on it, being fastened 

 along the median line of the back by means of a 

 loose membrane, to the spinous processes of the 

 vertebrae; on top of the head the points of attach- 

 ment are the two semi-circular prominences of the 

 frontal bone through the agency of an integument 

 connecting them with two shields. The effect of 

 this arrangement is that the armor gapes open on 

 the sides of the body and can be raised in a flap- 

 like manner. On the other hand it is seturely con- 

 nected to the bone at the fore part of the head, and 

 likewise at the rump, where it presents an abruptly 

 abcised plane. Though the dermal intervals between 

 the zones are not very wide, they still admit of a 

 considerable degree of movement, which to a cer- 

 tain extent, accounts for the capability of the ani- 

 mal to assume a spheroidal shape. The buckler of 

 the rump is firmly fixed and immobile, connected 

 with the tail by a membrane only; its line of direc- 

 tion forms a right angle with the longer axis of the 

 body and it lies upon the animal perfectly flat; it 

 consists of five or six semi-circular rows of little 

 shields, some of rectangular, others of rhomboid 

 shape. The armor is nearly destitute of hair and is 

 smooth on the upper parts as well as on the de- 

 tached under surface; only the lower edges of the 

 carapace show numerous, rather long and silky hairs. 

 The external skin of the animal, however, is cov- 

 ered everywhere, and even that portion beneath the 

 carapace with long, fine, soft, silky hair; only the 

 tail, the soles of the feet, the tip of the snout and 

 the chin are bare. The body rather exceeds five 

 inches in length; the tail measures nearly one and 

 one-half inches and the height is two inches. 



Information as In zoological works we find only the 



to the Bichociego following data about the life of the 



Limited. Bichociego. The animal lives in 



sandy plains, and like the Mole, it digs long tunnels 



under the ground; it carefully avoids leaving this 



