her from her swaddling clothes, and, perhaps, have anticipated her slow discoveries, for we should have written more for science; and less against error. But to return to our subject; it appears then that there exists several species of animals which are not covered with hair among the viviparous quadrupeds. Armadillos form alone a whole genus, in which may be reckoned many distinct species, all of whom are, however, covered with a crust, resembling bone; it covers the head, neck, back, flanks, rump, and the tail, to the very extremity. The crust is covered with a thin skin, sleek and transparent: the only parts that are not sheltered by this buckler are the throat, breast, and belly, which have a white grainy skin, like that of a plucked fowl, by inspecting these parts with attention, we perceive the rudiments of scales of the same substance as the crust; the skin of these animals, even in the places where it is most soft, is therefore inclined to become bony, but the ossification is only realized on the superior and external parts of the body. This crust is not in one piece, like that of the turtle, but consists of several bands, joined to each other by membranes, which allow this armour a degree of motion. The number of these bands does not depend, as might be imagined, on the age of the animal. The young armadillos, and the adults, have the same number of stripes, of which we have been convinced by comparing them; and though we cannot be certain that all these animals do not intermix and produce promiscuously, yet it is very probable, that since the difference in the number of these moveable bands is constant, they are really distinct species, or at least lasting varieties, produced by the influence of various climates. In this uncertainty, which time alone can remove, we have thought proper to mention all the armadillos under one head, enumerating each of them as if they were, in fact, so many different species. Father d'Abbeville seems to be the first who has distinguished them by different names or epithets, and which have been, for the most part, adopted by the authors who have written after him. He has clearly indicated six species of them: first, _tatououasso_, or, as we call it, twelve-banded armadillo; 2. the _tatouette_, or eight-banded; 3. the _encuberto_ of Marcgrave, or six-banded; 4. the _tatua-apara_, or three-banded; 5. the _cinquinçon_, or eighteen-banded; 6. _cachichame_, or nineteen-banded. Other travellers have confounded the species; but we have borrowed only the description of the _apar_ and the _cinquinçon_, having seen the other four.