586 



NA TURA L HIS TOR Y. 



There are two distinct types of sloth ; one with two, the other with 

 three toes to the feet. There are some twelve species known in all, some 

 ransdno; north into southern Mexico, but most of them living hi the dense 

 forests of the Amazon and the Orinoco. They have but little that is of 

 interest in their appearance ; in museum specimens the hair of the bod}" is 

 some shade of a dirty gray, but in life it has a decidedly greenish hue, the 

 cause of which is interesting. It is caused by the growth of a minute 

 plant, allied to the fresh-water alga3, upon the hair. 



Tfr/w, 



Fig. 480. — Great ant-eater (Myrmecophayajubatu). 



The true ant-eaters have much the same range as the sloths, and are 

 only excelled by them in slowness and awkwardness of motions. Our cut 

 shows the largest species, and some comments upon it will serve to illus- 

 trate some of the features of these animals. In the first place, the figure 

 natters the animal ; it makes it much too good-looking. In nature the 

 hairs of the enormous tail are stiff and like wires, and nowhere does the 

 pelage have that softness which one would expect from the figure. One 

 of the fore paws is shown with its huge claws much like those of the 

 sloths. These are used to scratch open the ant-hills so abundant in tropi- 



