The genus _Xenurus_ contains several species, the best known of which is inaptly named _X. unicinctus_. As a matter of fact the characteristic feature of the genus is the existence of twelve or thirteen movable plates between the two ends of the body. _X. unicinctus_ has twelve dorsal and three lumbar vertebrae. This Armadillo, known by the vernacular name of the Cabassou, has one of the most modified hands that are found in the family. The first two digits are slender and elongated; but are quite normal in the number of their phalanges. In the remaining three digits the metacarpal is short and broad, while the proximal phalanx is either suppressed altogether or fused with the metacarpal, the middle phalanx is present but short, while the third phalanx is very large indeed. As in _Dasypus_, but not as in _Tatusia_, which is in so many other respects divergent from these genera, the lungs have an azygos lobe. As a small point of difference, tending to show an alliance between the genera _Xenurus_ and _Dasypus_ and their difference from _Tatusia_, is the deeply-imbedded gall-bladder; this sac is not nearly so deeply plunged into the hepatic tissue in _Tatusia_. _Xenurus_ has no caecal dilatations. The brain "is intermediate in its form and surface markings between _Dasypus_ and _Tolypeutes_." The small intestine is nearly eighteen times the length of the large. But these intestinal measurements are not of much avail in this group as marks of affinity, since in three species of _Dasypus_ Garrod gives the following widely-divergent lengths:--_D. villosus_, 11.5 feet and 1.25; _D. minutus_ {179} 5.1, with a large intestine of no less than 7 feet; _D. vellerosus_ 4.3 and .66. _Priodon_ is the giant of its race. This Armadillo may reach a length of 3 feet to the base of the tail. The tail is some 20 inches long. The large number of teeth has been already noticed. There are twelve or thirteen bands. Other points in the structure of this genus have already been mentioned, and need not be recapitulated. This Armadillo feeds upon termites and carrion. _Scleropleura_ is unfortunately but imperfectly known. The single species, named by Milne-Edwards[112] _S. bruneti_, is apparently a very rare inhabitant of Brazil. It is known by a single skin, which was tanned by the hunter who obtained it. Thus the hair, if any, has dropped out. The plates in the skin are deficient along the back and even upon the top of the head, and are barely represented upon the tail posteriorly. The ears are small and distant from each other. The tail is longish, about one-third of the length of the body. The total length of the creature including the tail is rather more than a foot and a half. The hunter who obtained it regarded it as a hybrid between an Armadillo and an Anteater.