QUEER PHASES OF ANIMAL LIFE. 



595 



the dark-colored clusters of the feather-mistletoe ( Viscum rubrum) 

 which frequents the tree-tops of this mountain-region. Closely re- 

 sembling clusters of feathery leaves and feathery hair are often seen 

 side by side on the same bi'anch. Which of them is the animated one ? 

 A load of buckshot may fail to settle the point. I have seen a troop of 



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kMWf- ** 



Pig. 3. Martyrs to Free Inquiry. 



idle soldiers bombarding a sloth-tree for half an hour with the heaviest 

 available missiles without being able to force the stronghold of the 

 occupant, who only tightened his grip when a well-aimed stone crushed 

 his head visibly and audibly. But with a good rifle you may dislodge 

 the most tenacious tardo by hitting his branch somewhere below his 

 foot-hold, for a fractured caucho-stick will snap like a cabbage-stalk. 

 Thus displanted, the falling sloth clutches at the empty air or snaps off 

 twig after twig in his headlong descent, but generally manages to fetch 

 up on one of the stout lower branches, and at once hugs it with all the 

 energy of his prehensile organs ; and there he hangs, within easy reach 

 of your arm, perhaps, but without betraying the slightest concern at 

 your approach. The human voice has no terrors for the stoic tardi- 

 grade ; menacing gestures fail to impress him. A blank cartridge ex- 

 ploded under his nose will hardly make him wink, unless the powder 



