EDENTATA. 161 



united to the acromion. The arms arc double the length of the 

 legs ; the hair on the head, back, and limbs is long, coarse, 

 and non-elastic, something like dried hay, which gives it a most 

 hideous aspect. Its colour is grey, the back being frequently 

 spotted with white and brown. It is as large as a Cat, and is 

 the only mammiferous animal known which has nine cervical 

 vertebrje. 



There is an Ai called the Dos brule, from the circumstance 

 of having between the shoulders a black spot, surrounded with 

 fawn colour; but, according to Temminck, it is only a variety ; 

 the appearance alluded to resulting from the wearing away of 

 the long hair on the shoulder. The Black Collared Jii^ how- 

 ever, Brad, tor quatus, Geoff. Ann. Mus., Schreb. LXXIV, A, 

 is a species that is very distinct, even in the bony structure of 

 the head. 

 M. Fr. Cuvier applies the name of Bradypus to those species 

 only which have two nails to the fore feet, the Chol^pus, Illig. 

 Their canini are larger and more pointed, and they are wholly des- 

 titute of a tail. There is but one known. 



B, didactylus, L.; Buff. XIII, i. (The Unau.) Which is 

 ' somewhat less unfortunately organized than the Ai. Its arms 

 are not so long, and its clavicles are complete; there are fewer 

 bones of the feet and hands which become soldered together ; 

 the muzzle is more elongated, &c. It is larger than the Ai by 

 one half, and is of a uniform greyish-brown, which sometimes 

 has a reddish tint. 



These two animals are natives of the hot parts of America, 

 and, long ere this, would probably have been destroyed by the 

 numerous Carnivora of that country, had they not possessed 

 some means of defence in their nails. (l) 



Fossil skeletons of two Edentata of great size have been 



(1) It is singular that the B. didadylus was not known before the time of Seba, 

 and that for a long time naturalists obstinately persisted in referring it, on the au- 

 thority of that ignorant collector, to Ceylon. Erxleben has maintained its African 

 origin, having mistaken it for the Poto of Bosmann, which is a Galago. (See this 

 last genus. ) It is a fact that the Unau is only found in South America, 



Shaw, Gen. Zool., under the name o^ Brad, tirsinus, has described an animal of 

 which Illiger has made his genus Prochylus. M. IJuclianan, Trav. in the Mysore, 

 Vol. II, p. 198, has shown it to be a true Bear, and in fact we have satisfied our- 

 selves by inspecting the cranium of the very individual described by Shaw, that It 

 was a Bear of the species termed thick-lipped, which had lost its incisors. See 

 Ursus, &c. 



Vol. I. V 



