90 15AI1IA. 



coloured strongly-smelling substance, supposed to act as a sexual 

 attraction. The bat was resting on a bare tree-trunk, asleep, 

 the dense forest growth overhead making this exposed situation 

 quite dark enough for it. I caught it with a butterfly net. 



On our way back to the farm, we watched some ants 

 carrying off bits of cassava leaves to their holes. One cannot 

 walk anywhere in the neighbourhood of Bahia without seeing 

 these Leaf-cutting Ants {(Ecodoma) at work. Their habits 

 have been described by many observers, and recently by Mr. 

 Belt * at great length. 



One soldier-ant was carrying a piece of young cassava root, 

 two inches in length. It held the stick by one end thrown 

 over its back, but not touching it, the other end projecting far 

 behind the insect. There was just a balance. The slightest 

 extra weight on the hinder tip of the stick would have upset 

 the bearer backwards. The ant staggered from side to side 

 under its burden, like a heavily-laden porter, and got along 

 very slowly. 



I pulled the burden away and then put it back again. The 

 ant struggled a long while to get it back into its old position, 

 but could not. Then it tried to balance it crossways by the 

 middle, but one end always tilted up, and the other stuck 

 against the ground. So at last the ant cut the stick in two, 

 and carried off one half, a worker hoisting the other. The 

 further road to St. Amaro lay through sugar estates all the way. 

 I left St. Amaro early next morning by steamer, and reached 

 Bahia at lo a.m. 



On the quay I bought a living full-grown Three-toed Sloth 

 {Bradypus tridactylus) from a countryman for two shillings. 

 We kept the animal alive in our work-room for some days, 

 where it hung on to the book shelves and bottle racks, and 

 crawled about. As I could not get it to feed, I had to kill it. 



The beast was the most inane-looking animal I ever saw, 

 and never attempted to bite or scratch ; none of us could look 

 at its face without laughing. It merely hung tight on to 

 anything within reach. It showed, however, one sign of 

 intelligence. I hung it on a brass rod used for suspending a 

 lamp beneath one of the skylights in our room. It remained 

 there half a day, hanging head downward, and constantly 

 endeavouring to reach the book shelves near by, but without 

 success. At last it found out an arrangement of its limbs by 

 which this was possible, and got away from the lamp rod, and 

 in future whenever I hung it up on the rod it climbed to the 

 book shelves within five minutes or so. 



* "The Naturalist in Nicaragua," by Thos. Belt, p. 71, ct seq. London, 

 John Mnrray, 1S74. 



