14}^ MAMMALIA, 



and the little toe, reduced to small rudiments, are hidden under the 

 skin, and soldered to the metatarsus and metacarpus; the clavicle, 

 also reduced to a rudiment, is firmly united in the acromion. The 

 arms are double the length of the legs ; the hair on the head, back, 

 and limbs, is long, coarse, and inelastic, something like dried hay, 

 which gives it a hideous aspect. Its colour is grey, the back being 

 frequently spotted with white and brown. It is as large as a Cat, 

 and is the only mammiferous animal known which has nine cervical 

 vertebrse. 



There is an Ai called the Burned Back Ai, from the circumstance 

 of having between the shoulders a black spot, surrounded with fawn 

 colour ; but, according to Temminck, it is only a variety ; the ap- 

 pearance alluded to resulting from the wearing away of the long hair 

 on the shoulder. The Black Collared Ai, however, — Brad, tor- 

 quatus, GeoiF. Ann. Mus., Schreb. LXXIVj A, is a species that is 

 very distinct, even in the bony structure of the head. 

 M. Fr. Cuvier applies the name of Bradypus to those species only 

 which have two nails to the fore feet, the Chol.ispus, Illig. Their ca- 

 nines are larger and more pointed^ and they are wholly destitute of a tail. 

 There is but one known. 



B. didactylus, L. ; BufF. XIII, i. (The Unau). Wliich is 

 somewhat less unfortunately organized than the Ai. Its arms are 

 not so long, and its clavicles are complete ; there are fewer bones of 

 the feet and hands which hecome soldered together; the muzzle is 

 more elongated, &c. It is larger than the Ai by one half, and is of 

 a uniform greyish-brown, which sometimes assumes a reddish tint. 



These two animals are natives of the hot parts of America, and, 

 long ere this, would probably have been destroyed by the numerous 

 Carnivora of that country, had they not possessed some means of de- 

 fence in their nails.* 



Fossil skeletons of two animals of the order Edentata, of great size, have 

 been discovered in America, one of which, the Megatherium (a), Cuv. 

 Oss. Foss. Tom. v. Part i, p. 174, has a head very similar to that of the 

 sloths, but is deficient in the canines, and approaches, in the remainder 



* It is singular that the B. dydactylus was not known before the time of Seha, and 

 that for a long time naturalists obstinately persisted in referring it, on the authority 

 of that ignorant collector, to Ceylon. Erxleben has maintained its African origin, 

 having mistaken it for the Poto- of Bosmann, which is a Galago. (See this last ge- 

 nus). It is a fact that the Unau is only found in South America. 



Shaw, Gen. Zool., under the name of Brad, ursintis, has described an animal of 

 which Illiger has made his genus Prochylus. M. Buchanan, Trav. in the Mysore, 

 Vol. II. p. 198, has shewn it to be a true bear; and in fact we have satisfied our- 

 selves, by inspecting the cranium of the very individual described by Shaw, that it 

 was a bear of the species tenned thick-lipped, which had lost its incisors. See Ursiis, 

 &c. 



^^ (a) The Megatherium is described as of the size of the Rhinoceros, uniting 

 part of the structure of the Armadillo with that of the Sloth, and having claws of 

 vast length. The Megalonix was an animal of the same description, but somewhat 

 smaller. — Eno. Ed. 



