328 SLOTHS, ANT-EATERS AND ARMADILLOS 



It clung directly to the pole and hung on. Some years ago I 

 kept a Sloth for several months. I often took him out of the 

 house and placed him on the ground, in order to have an oppor- 

 tunity of observing his motions. If the ground were rough he 

 would pull himself forward by means of his forelegs, 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 after getting all his legs in a 

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

 together. The 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 he sleeps sus- 

 pended from it ; hence his seemingly bungled conformation is at 

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

 large Two-Toed Sloth on the ground upon the bank, and although 

 the trees were not twenty yards from him, he could not make 

 his way through the sand in time enough to make his escape before 

 we landed. He threw himself on his back and defended himself 

 with his forelegs: I took a long stick and held it for him to hook 

 on, and then conveyed him to a high and stately mora. He as- 

 cended 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, and then 

 proceeded towards the heart of the forest." 



The length of the fore-limbs is very striking in the Sloth, and 

 the bones of these limbs are more solid than those of most mammals. 

 The wrist and hand are long and narrow, and terminate in three 

 or two strong curved claws, according to whether the animal 

 happens to be a Three-Toed Sloth, or Ai (Bradypus tridactylus), 

 or a Two-Toed Sloth, or Unau (Choloepus didactylus). The fur 

 is shaggy, and has a peculiar greenish tinge, which is not due to 

 the colour of the hair, but to the growth of a small plant (an alga) 

 upon it. The Three-Toed Sloth is remarkable in possessing no 

 fewer than nine vertebrae in the neck, which enables the animal to 

 turn its head almost completely round without any movement of 

 the body. The two species of Two-Toed Sloth have, respectively, 

 six and seven vertebrae in the neck, and are very similar in their 

 general appearance and habits to their three-toed relation. Dr. 





