THE SLOTHS 



1375 



ant-eaters and the pangolins have entirely lost their teeth, those organs are retained 

 in a comparatively-high state of development among the aard-varks. At the present 

 day the Edentates are evidently a waning group, the whole of the larger members 

 of the order having died out; while those which remain have sought protection by 

 the acquisition of either arboreal or burrowing habits, or by the development of a 

 protective coat of mail to their bodies. 



THE SLOTHS 

 Family BRADTPODID^E 



Although by the older zoologists the sloths were regarded as ill-formed crea- 

 tures destined to lead a miserable life on account of their misshapen limbs, no animals 

 are in reality better adapted to their peculiar mode of existence. We see this not 



SKELETON OF THREE-TOED SLOTH. 



only in their elongated limbs, which have been modified into hook-like organs of 

 suspension, with the removal of all superfluous digits and the great development of 

 the claws of those which remain, but likewise in the extraordinary resemblance 

 of their coarse coat of hair .to the shaggy lichens clothing the gnarled and knotted 

 boughs of their native forests. It is noteworthy that while the monkeys of the 

 same regions have mostly acquired a fifth limb by the development of the prehensile 

 power in their tails, the sloths have almost dispensed with tails altogether. 



The sloths are characterized externally by their short and rounded 

 heads, in which the ears are very small and buried among the fur, 

 their rudimentary tails, and the excessive elongation of their fore-limbs, of which 

 the length far surpasses that of the hinder pair. Both pairs of limbs are furnished 



Characteristics 



