THE SLOTH. 85 



mals, very long intestines, theirs are very short, like those 

 of the carnivorous kind. 



Both these animals belong to the southern parts of the 

 New Continent, and are never to be met with in the Old. 

 The Unau, as well as the Ai, is to be met with in the 

 deserts of America, from Brazil to Mexico ; but they have 

 never inhabited the northern countries. They cannot en- 

 dure cold nor rain ; the change from wet to dry spoils their 

 fur, which then resembles badly dressed hemp, rather than 

 wool or hair. 



Such is the description given of the Sloth, by BufFon 

 and other naturalists ; and, judging of it from such a rep- 

 resentation, it is not wonderful that the animal has become 

 proverbial as one of the most sluggish and wretched of the 

 whole creation. It happens, however, that this description 

 of its habits and sufferings is sadly at variance with truth. 

 Mr. Waterton, who, in his numerous and protracted jour- 

 neyings through the woods of South America, had a.bun- 

 dant opportunities of studying the natural history of the 

 Sloth, has shown the incorrectness of preceding writers 

 upon this subject. 



"Let us turn our attention (says he) to the Sloth, whose 

 haunts have hitherto been so little known, and probably 

 little looked into. Those who have written on this singu- 

 lar animal have remarked that he is in a perpetual state of 

 pain ; that he is proverbially slow in his movements ; that 

 he is a prisoner in space ; and that, as soon as he has con- 

 sumed all the leaves of the tree upon which he has 

 mounted, he rolls himself up in the form of a ball, and 

 then falls to the ground. This is not the case. 



" If the naturalists who have written the history of the 

 Sloth, had gone into the wilds, in order to examine his 

 haunts and economy, they would not have drawn the fore- 

 going conclusions ; they would have learned that, though 

 all other quadrupeds maybe described while resting on the 



