526 



Vertebrata. 



some had small bony knobs in the skin. The remains have been found in the 

 Quartemary strata in various parts of America. 



3. Ant-eaters (Myrmecophaga) are covered with fine or coarse hair, the 

 head is more or less elongate, sometimes very long ; teeth are absent, the mouth 

 is very small, the tongue vermiform, the submaxillary glands of unusual length ; 

 the third fingers are very large, with long falciform claws, the other fingers are 

 smaller or even atrophied ; the animal rests upon the outer edge of the hand in 

 walking ; the hind feet have four or five almost equal toes with powerful claws ; 

 the tail is long. This group is insectivorous, feeding, e.g., upon Termites which 

 adhere to the long tongue by means of the sticky saliva : South America. The 

 Great Ant-eater (M. jubata), with coarse hair and bushy tail, lives upon 

 the ground, whilst the other species are, for the most part, or exclusively, arboreal, 

 e.g., the Little or Two-toed Ant-eater {M. didactyla), which has a 

 short snout ; fine, soft fxir ; a prehensile tail ; and only two claw-bearing digits on 

 each of the fore limbs. 



Pig. 421. j1 manus of the Great Anteater, B of the Two-toed Anteater, 

 s scaphoid, I lunar, c cuneiform, p pisiform, tm trapezium, td trapezoid, m os magnum, 

 u unciform. / — V digits. — After Flower. 



4. Armadillos [Dasypodidse) are characterised throughout by a dorsal 

 covering of large flattened scales, like those of Reptiles ; these scales or 

 plates are separated from one another by grooves, the outer surface being very 

 homy, whilst within each scale there is a large ossification. They lie in several 

 ti'ansverse rows, separated by soft skin in the median region of the back, but 

 in front and behind they are close together; here the ossifications are firmly 

 fused, and this is also the case with those of each transverse row, so that the 

 back is covered by large bony shields in front and behind, and in the middle 

 with a varying number (three to twelve) of half hoops of bone. There are 

 similar scales on the dorsal side of the head, on the limbs, and on the tail, but 

 these are wanting from the hairy ventral surface. The teeth are cylindrical, often 

 fairly numerous ; the head is long with weU-developed pinnae ; the legs short 

 with strong claws, Th^ animal is plantigrade ; it ig fosgorial, essentially inseq- 



