184 EDENTATA. 
not from that country, but were obtained in Panama by Enrique Arcé, who was em- 
ployed for several years by Messrs. Godman and Salvin as a collector in the Southern 
States of Central America. 
2. Bradypus castaneiceps. 
Arctopithecus castaneiceps, Gray, P. Z. 8. 1871, p. 444, pl. xxxv. (descr. orig.)' ; Hand-list Edent. &c. 
Mamm. p. 5’. 
Camaleon of Nicaraguans’. 
Hab. Nicaraava, Chontales (Seemann, Mus. Brit.1). 
I have already given my reasons for provisionally accepting this species, which still 
rests on the single specimen in the British Museum. This was received in 1871 from 
the well-known botanist the late Dr. Berthold Seemann, who gave the following 
account of it in a letter to Dr. Gray :— 
“The Sloth (Arctopithecus) I brought home was caught in the woods surrounding 
the Javali gold-mine in the Chontales district of Nicaragua, about 2000 feet above the 
sea-level, a country having nine months of rain during the year. The natives call this 
animal ‘Camaleon,’ and say that it is very rare, which may be the case, as during all 
my travels in the country I have never met with it before. But, on the other hand, it 
should be borne in mind that it has almost exactly the same greyish-green colour as 
Tillandsia usneoides, the so-called ‘vegetable horsehair, common in the district; and 
if it could be shown that it frequented trees covered with that plant (a point I hope to 
ascertain during my next visit in June next), there would be a curious case of mimicry 
between this Sloth’s hair and the Til/andsia, and a good reason why so few of these 
Sloths are seen. When the animal first came into my possession it was much greener 
than its preserved skin is now, which has been dried over the fire, and it remains to be 
seen whether the greenness is owing, at least in part, to the fact that the hair becomes 
covered with minute cryptogamic organisms, the damp climate and thick gloomy forests 
being favourable to their growth. I had no microscope with me to clear up this point ; 
but this you will, of course, easily ascertain*. I had the animal alive for about a 
month, feeding it on the young leaves of Cecropia peltata, an urticaceous fast-growing 
tree of the district; and it used to eat most during the night, when it was also most 
lively. One night it escaped from its prison, and next morning was found about eight 
hundred yards off, in a water-butt, whither it had to make its way over a cleared hill, 
where there were no shrubs or trees, which rather puzzled me. During my temporary 
absence from Javali the servants neglected to feed it, or else I had hoped to bring it to 
London, to present to Dr. Sclater. It had great strength; and in order to pull it away 
from the tree to which it was holding, [both] your hands were necessary. On these 
occasions it used to utter a shrill sound, like a monkey; but I have never on any other 
occasion heard it utter this sound.” 
* Of. supra, p. 183. 
