On Maslodontoid and Megatherioid Animals, 133 



Buckland attracted us, whilst he described the Megatherium 

 as a huge beast, which, resting upon three legs, employed one 

 of its long fore-hands in grubbing up whole fields of esculent 

 roots ; a habit which procured for it the significant popular 

 name of " Old Scratch.'' 



Dr Lund, a Danish naturalist, had considered the Mega- 

 therium to be a scansorial or climbing animal ; in short a gi- 

 gantic Sloth. After a multitude of comparisons, Professor 

 Owen rejects the explanation of his predecessors. He shews 

 that the monstrous dimensions of the pelvis and sacrum, and 

 the colossal and heavy hinder legs, could never have been de- 

 signed, either to support an animal who simply scratched the 

 earth for food, or one which fed by climbing into lofty trees, 

 like the diminutive Sloth ; and he further cites the structure 

 of every analogous creature, either of burrowing or climbing 

 habits, to prove, that in all such the hinder legs are compa- 

 ratively light. What, then, was the method by which these 

 extraordinary monsters obtained their great supplies of food ? 

 The osteology of the fore-arm has, it appears, afforded an- 

 swers which are valuable, chiefly for their negation of erroneous 

 conjectures, such as that the animal was an ant-eater, rather 

 than for the habits which it directly elicits. It is, therefore, 

 to the organization of the hinder limbs that Professor Owen 

 mainly appeals to ascertain the functions of the fore-feet and 

 the general habits of the Mylodon. 



Arguing that the enormous pelvis must have been the centre 

 whence muscular masses of unwonted force diverged to act 

 upon the trunk, tail, and hind-legs, the latter, it is supposed, 

 formed with the tail a tripod on which the animal sat. Pro- 

 fessor Owen supposes that the animal first cleared away the 

 earth from the roots with its digging instruments, and that 

 then seated on its hinder extremities, which with the tail are 

 conjectured to have formed a tripod, and aided by the extra- 

 ordinary long heel as with a lever, it grasped the trunk of the 

 tree with its forelegs. Heaving to and fro the stateliest trees 

 of primeval forests and wrenching them from their hold, he 

 at length prostrated them by his side, and then regaled him- 

 self for several days on their choicest leaves and branches, 



