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Show 164 MAMMALIA. shell are furnished with longer and more thickly set hairs .. A neighbouring species is the Hairy Tatou of Azzara. .A th1rd subdivision of the Tatous, or the CABAssous, Cuv., 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 trenchant 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 to it 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. Das. unicinctus, L.; Le Cabassou propre, Buff.; Tatouay, Azz. (The Tatouay.) Twelve intermediate bands; the tail long and tuberculous ; the compartments of the bands and shields square, broader than long; five toes every where, of which the four anterior have enormous nails with trenchant external edges. It attains a great size. PRronoN, Fr. Cuv. The toes more unequal, and the nails more enormous than in the preceding subgenus; twenty-two to twenty-four small teeth through· out, or ninety-four or ninety-six in all. Such is the Dasypus gigas, Cuv.; Tatou g~ant, Geoff.; Great Tatou, Azzar.; Deuxieme Cabassou,Buff. X,xlv. (The Giant Armadillo.) Twelve or thirteen intermediate bands; the tail long, and covered with tiled scales; the compartments square, more broad than long. It is the largest of the Tatous, being sometimes more than three feet in length, exclusive of the tail. Finally, we should place after the Tatous, as a very distinct sub· genus, the CLAMYPHORus, Harl., Which has ten teeth throughout, and fiye toes to each foot; the nails of the fore feet very large, crooked and compressed, furnishing, as in the Cabassous, a powerfully trenchant instrument. The back is covered with a suite of transverse rows of scaly plates, without any solid shell before or behind, forming a sort of haubet•k which is only connected with the body along the spine. The hinder part of the body is truncated, and their curved tail partially attached to the under part of the body.(l ). One species only is known, the (1) We onlJC know this animal by the description of Dr Harlan, Ann. of the New York Lye. J, p. 235 and pl. :x:xi. EDENTATA. 165 0. truncatua, Harl.(l) which is five or six inches in length, and is found in the interior of Chili, where it passes the most of its time under ground. It appears that the fossil bones of a Tatou of gigantic size, being ten feet long exclusive of the tail, have been found in America. See Cuv. Oss. Foss. V. part 1, p. 191, note. 0RYCTEROPus, Geoff.(2) The animals of this genus were for a long time confounded with the Ant-Eaters on account of their using the same kind of food, having a similar head, and a tongue somewhat extensible ; but they are distinguished from them by being furnished with grinders and flat nails, formed for digging and not trenchant. The structure of their teeth differs from that of all other quadrupeds; they are solid cylinders traversed like reeds, in a longitudinal direction, with an infinitude of little canals. Their stomach is simple, and muscular near the pylorus, their crecum small and obtuse. There is only one species known. Oryct. capensis; Myrmecophaga capensis, Pall.; Buff. Supp. VI, xxxi. (The Cape Ground-Hog.) So called by the Dutch of that colony. It is an animal about the size of the Badger or larger; stands low; has short hair, and is of a brownish-grey. The tail is not so long as the body, and is covered with equally short hairs. It has four toes before, and five behind. Inhabits burrows, which it excavates with great facility. The flesh is eaten. The other ordinary Edentata have no grinders, and consequently no teeth of any description. They also form two genera. MYRMECOPHAGA, Lin. The Ant-Eaters are hairy animals with a long muzzle terminated by a small toothless mouth, from which is protruded a filiform tongue susceptible of considerable elongation, and which they insinuate into Ant-hills and the nests of the Termites, whence these Insects are withdrawn by being entangled in the viscid saliva that covers it. The nails of the fore feet, strong and trenchant, and varying in numb~ r according to the species, serve to tear up the nests of the Termttes, and afford the means of defence. When at rest, these nails are to~ Its osteology, as given by M. Yarrel, (Zool. Journ. No. 12,) is closely allied (2 t of the Cabassous. Over each eye-brow there is a singular ridge. ) Orycteropw, feet fitted for digging. |
