MAMMALIA. 407 
molars are cylindrical, seven or eight in number throughout, separated from 
each other, and without enamel on the inside. The tongue is smooth, and 
but slightly extensible. Between their scales, or on those parts of the body 
not covered by the shell, there are few scattered hairs. They dig burrows, 
and live partly on vegetables and partly on insects and dead bodies. They 
all belong to the hot, or at least to the temperate parts of America. 
Dasypus peba is found in the southern United States. They may be 
divided into sub-genera, from considerations drawn from the structure of 
their fore feet, and the number of their teeth. Cachicamus has four toes to 
the anterior feet, the two middle ones of which are the longest ; only seven 
teeth on each side, and in each jaw. The tail is long, and encircled with 
bony rings. Dasypus novemcinctus (pl. 112, fig. 8) is the type of this 
section. Apara has the same toes as in Cachicamus, and nine or ten teeth 
throughout (D. tricinctus). incoubertus has five toes to the fore feet, the 
three middle of which are the longest. The greater part of the tail is 
covered with scales, arranged in quincunx. There are nine or ten teeth 
throughout, as in Apara. D. sexcinctus (pl. 112, fig.'7) belongs to this 
type. Cabassous has five toes to the fore feet, but directed obliquely, 
so that the thumb and index are slender, and the latter the longest; the 
middle one has an enormous sharp nail: the following one has also a nail, 
but a shorter one, and the last toe is the shortest of all. This form of the 
foot enables these animals to divide the earth, and burrow into it with 
rapidity, or at any rate to cling with such tenacity that it is extremely 
difficult to tear them from it. They have but eight or nine teeth on each 
side, and in each jaw. D. unicinctus is an example. Priodon has the toes 
more unequal, and the nails larger than in the preceding sub-genera. 
There are twenty-two to twenty-four small teeth throughout, or ninety-two 
to ninety-six inall. JD. gigas, the largest species of the tatous, belongs to 
this section. It is sometimes more than three feet in length, the tail 
included. 
Several species of the genus Dasypus are known in a fossil state, which 
seem to indicate a wider geographical range, inasmuch as two of them are 
said to occur in North America, D. maximus and D. antiquus. 
The genus Chlamydophorus has the upper part of the body covered with 
a cuirass composed of rhomboidal plates, truncated behind, only connected 
to the body along the spine. The rest of the body is hairy. Above and 
below it is provided with eight cutting teeth. The fingers of the fore feet 
are inclosed within a membrane, and provided with five strong, shovel-like 
nails. A single species is known, Chil. truncatus (pl. 112, fig. 6), from the 
interior of Chili, where it passes the most of its time under the ground. 
The extinct genera of this family, among which are some gigantic forms, 
are not without affinities with Bradipodide, which they connect more inti- 
mately with Dasypodide, so distant from each other when the living types 
alone are taken into consideration. The genus Glyptodon has the charac- 
teristic descending zygomatic apophysis of the Megatheride ; but the feet 
are bulky, and the phalanges, to which nails articulate, are short and 
depressed. The molars, eight above and eight below, come nearer those 
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