24 Prof. BucKLAND on the Adaptation of the Structure 



gular animal," he observes, " is destined to be produced, to live and to die on 

 trees ; he inhabits remote and gloomy forests : from the descriptions which 

 have been given of the Sloth, you would suspect that no naturalist had gone 

 into the wilds to examine his haimts, and see whether Nature has committed 

 any blunder in the formation of this extraordinary creature. As the Indians 

 and negroes are the people who usually catch the Sloth and bring it to the 

 white man, it is probable the erroneous^ ccounts we have hitherto had of the 

 Sloth have arisen from examining the animal in those places where Nature 

 never intended he should be exhibited. 



" Some years ago I kept a Sloth for several months : I often took him out of 

 the house and placed him on tlie ground in order to have an opportunity of 

 observing his motions ; if the ground were rough, he would pull himself for- 

 wards, by means of his fore-legs, at a pretty good pace ; and he invariably 

 shaped his course towards the nearest tree ; but if I put him upon a smooth 

 and well-trodden part of the road, he appeared to be in trouble and distress : 

 his favourite abode was the back of a chair ; and often getting all his legs in a 

 line upon the topmost part of it, he would hang there for hours together. Tlie 

 Sloth in its wild state spends its whole life upon trees, not upon the branches, 

 but under them ; he moves suspended from the branch, he rests suspended 

 from it, and lie sleeps suspended from it ; hence his seemingly bungled confor- 

 mation is at once accounted for. One day, crossing the Essequibo, I saw a 

 large two-toed Sloth on the ground upon the bank ; though the trees were not 

 twenty yards from him, he could not make his way through the sand time 

 enough to make his escape before we landed: he threw himself on his back, 

 and defended himself with his fore-legs : I took a long stick and held it for him 

 to hook on, and then conveyed him to a high and stately mora ; he ascended 

 with wonderful rapidity, and in about a minute he was almost at the top of the 

 tree ; he now went off in a side direction, and caught hold of the branch of a 

 neighbouring tree ; he then proceeded towards the heart of the forest." — For 

 more full details of his very interesting account of the Sloth tribe, I nmst refer 

 my readers to Waterton's Wanderings, pp. 161, 284. 



I am indebted to my friend Mr. Burchell for the following account of his 

 personal observations on the habits of the Sloth during his late travels in South 

 America. At Santos in Brazil, in 1826, Mr. Burchell kept a tame Sloth, a 



