622 
U. S. P. R. R. EXP. AND SURVEYS-ZOOLOGY-GENERAL REPORT. 
More active than the sloths, the armadillos are, nevertheless, ill fitted for rapid progression, 
although they move with comparatively great quickness through loose" soil. The limbs are 
short and stout; the hinder ones longest; the claws are long and well fitted for digging. The 
muzzle, which in sloths is very short and blunt, is here elongated, sometimes to a very great 
degree. Teeth are sometimes present, sometimes entirely wanting ; in the former case they 
consist entirely of molars. A single species only has a tooth on either side of the upper jaw, 
which, from its implantation in the intermaxillary, is to he considered as an incisor, although 
in shape and lateral position it agrees altogether with the molars. The malar bone is simple, 
or else entirely wanting. The stomach is not compound. The external covering consists either 
of hair, of bony plates, or imbricated scales, hut however varied in this respect, the internal 
structure exhibits a marked conformity in the different genera. Their food consists of insects 
and worms, obtained mostly by digging . 1 
There are two divisions of this family, one embracing genera with teeth, as Dasypus, Chlamy- 
dophorus, and Orycteropus; the genera of the other are entirely destitute of teeth in both jaws, 
as Myrmecophaga and Manis, which are thus true Edentata, in the strictest sense of the term. 
iWagner, Suppl. Schreb. IV, 1844, 160. 
