50 
MAMMALIAN GALLERY. 
compelled, and feeding on leaves and young twigs, for the masti- 
cation of which their few and simple teeth are sufficiently well 
suited. They are slow in their movements, but by no means so 
helpless as is often supposed, although they escape their enemies 
less by their own exertion than by the difficulty with which they 
are distinguished from the branch to which they cling. They 
inhabit the forests of Tropical America. The living species of 
Sloths are not much larger than a cat ; but remains of an extinct 
Sloth [Megatherium) occur in abundance in the Pampas of South 
America, which exceeded an elephant in bulk. So ponderous an 
animal could only live on the ground. 
[Case 33.] The Anteaters [Myrmecophagiclce) have narrow heads with long 
snouts, to accommodate their enormously long worm-like tongues ; 
their tails are well developed, and in some species prehensile, their 
toes separate from each other, as in ordinary mammals, and the 
third on the fore foot is provided with a huge digging claw. Like 
the Sloths, they are all natives of Tropical xAmerica. The Great 
Anteater [Myrmecophaga jiihata) is about four feet in length and 
has a long black mane along its back, and a thick bushy tail. 
It is terrestrial in its habits, and feeds entirely on ants, which it 
catches with its long sticky tongue, after having torn open their 
nests with its powerful claws. Much smaller are the Tamanduas 
and the Two-toed Anteater, the latter being scarcely larger than 
a rat. Both lead an entirely arboreal life. 
The Loricata, or Shielded Edentates, consist of the single family 
Dasypodiche, or Armadilloes, remarkable for the thick plates of 
ossified skin with M’hich their bodies are covered, and which form 
immovable shields across the shoulders and hips, while the centre 
of the back is protected by a greater or less number of transverse 
bands of ])lates, jointed to each other by tiexible skin. The head and 
tail are also covered by a mosaic of bony ])lates; but the belly and 
the inner sides of the limbs are clothed with soft skin only. They 
possess teeth, which are, however, of very simple character. Their 
tore feet have a variable number of long and powerful claws, and 
their hind feet have always five rather small claws. About twenty 
s})ecics are known. Priorwdonma.vimus, the Giant Armadillo, is the 
largest, measuring more than two feet in length ; while the smallest, 
rarest, and in many respects the most interesting, is the Mole- 
Armadillo [Chlamydophorus tnincatus), which has the outer shield 
