ARMADILLOS. 
The armadillos belong to a family of the Order Edentata. 
An exemplification of the difficulty experienced by the 
scientific zoologist, in finding a suitable nomenclature 
under which to arrange and classify the various orders of 
the animal kingdom, is aptly given in the Order Edentata 
(or toothless). For the largest species of armadillo 
{Dasypus gigas) is furnished with a larger number of 
teeth than any other quadruped (mammal), the teeth 
consisting of upwards of ninety molars. Notwithstanding 
this anomaly, a more convenient or less inconsistent place 
for arranging the genus Dasypus has not been found. 
Armadillos have the appearance, at first sight, of reptiles ; 
the horny skin, covered with bands and plates, strikes the 
observer as bearing a resemblance to lizards or crocodiles, 
but more particularly to tortoises ; and long since some of 
the ablest anatomists pointed out strong and well-marked 
characters of agreement in the structure of those distantly 
related forms. Notwithstanding the apparently close 
similitude in some of the structures, the idea that the 
affinity is very great cannot, for one moment, be enter- 
tained ; they may be nearer than the tortoise-shell cat to 
the tortoise. However many resemblances can be found, 
perhaps a large number of well-marked differences can be 
distinguished : the structure of the bones themselves, where 
a section is examined under the microscope, presents at 
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