THE COMMON SLOTH. 171 



been known to strangle a dog, holding him all the while 

 at arm's length ; and in this manner he grapples with 

 snakes of large size, to the attacks of which he is said to 

 be subject. 



Mr. Burchell (says Professor Buckland, in an inte- 

 resting paper on these animals in the ' Linn. Trans.' 

 1835) observed that "his captive sloths assumed during 

 sleep a position of perfect ease and safety on the fork of 

 a tree, their arms embracing the trunk, their backs rest- 

 ing on the angle of a branch, and their head reclining 

 on their own bosom. The animal is thus rolled up 

 nearly in the form of a ball ; the entire vertebral column, 

 including the neck, assumes a nearly circular curve, and 

 not only is the weight of the whole body maintained in 

 an attitude of ease and safety, but the head is supported 

 between the arms and chest, and the* face lies buried in 

 the long wool which covers those parts, and is thus pro- 

 tected during sleep from the myriads of insects which 

 would otherwise attack it." According to Mr. Burchell, 

 the buds and young shoots of a species of Cecropia form 

 the principal food of the sloth. These trees grow only 

 in damp places, and rise with a slender stem to the height 

 of thirty or forty feet, giving off horizontal branches, 

 hollow internally, except at the extremities. Along 

 these branches it travels, and the young cling round the 

 body of the mother. It would appear that the moisture 

 of leaves or buds suffices the sloth for drink, as none kept 

 by Mr. Burchell took liquid in any other way. In the 

 aspect of the sloth there is an expression of profound 

 melancholy ; it seldom utters any cry ; it notices nothing 

 with any positive mark of attention, except perhaps the 

 trees to which unerring instinct draws it, nor by any 

 action evinces much intelligence. 



The dental system of the sloths is the most simple 

 that can well be conceived. They have no incisor teeth, 

 but canines and molars only ; and in the ai the canines 

 are diminutive, and in all respects very similar to the 

 other teeth. The molar teeth are universally eight in 

 the upper jaw and six in the lower, four and three on 

 either side respectively. Their construction is most 



