CLASS I. MAMMALIA: ORDER 8. EDENTATA. 
465 
THE GIANT TATOu. — (See p. 467.) 
tortoise-sliell, and is hard and stiff, witli a very slight elasticity, and is fastened by being attached 
to the skin of the body. It is formed of numerous small many-sided plates, placed contiguous to 
one another like mosaic or inlaid work. The buckler of the head, though thus composed of many 
smaller plates, is formed into one solid piece of armor, appearing ornamented like mosaic. The 
same may be said of the buckler over the shoulders, as well as that over the rump. 
The" bands across the loins perform a most important function, for while they, like the buck- 
lers, are composed of a series of bony pieces, they are connected with each other by flexible skin, 
and being attached to the buckler before as well as that behind, they unite the whole, at the same 
time allowing; complete freedom to tbe motions of the animal. 
It is necessary, in order fully to comprehend the completeness of this system of defense, to state 
that the buckler of the head projects back so as to cover the neck, which, in order to suit this ar- 
rangement, is exceedingly short ; it is also formed so as to lap over the edge of the contiguous 
buckler across the shoulders, and in a manner not to interfere with it. As the movable bands 
constitute that portion of the armor most easily used for adapting the whole to the size of the 
animal, they are not only movable, but variable in number and size. So that — as in man, if he 
outgTows his coat, it may be pieced and enlarged — if the Armadillo gets too big for his shell the 
bands are enlarged, or new ones formed to suit the emergency. In this curious arrangement 
there is, perhaps, nothing more wonderful than in the ordinary processes of nature in clothing the 
common quadruped with hair or the bird with feathers, but as it is a departure from the general 
system pursued in relation to this division of animated nature, it excites attention, and calls upon 
us to admire alike the resources of the Creative Power, and the perfectness of its work. 
The throat, breast, belly, and thighs of the Armadillo are naked, or covered with a thick gran- 
ulated skin, thinly furnished with warts or tubercles, which give origin to a fevf coarse bristly 
hairs. The commissures of the movable bands on the loins are likewise provided with a number 
of long hairs ; but with this exception the body is covered only by its peculiar shell. The tail is 
straight, round, thick, and pointed ; it is adapted at the root to a notch or cavity in the posterior 
edge of the buckler of the croup, and, with the exception of one species, is universally covered 
with bony rings, formed, like the rings of the bucklers, of numerous small pieces connected to- 
gether, but capable of a certain degree of motion, and thus admitting of considerable flexibility in 
the tail itself. 
The head of the Armadillos is flat and terminated by a pointed muzzle, which assists them, like 
the snout of the hog and mole, to turn up the earth in search of roots and v/orms. Their ears 
Vol. L— 69 
