THE SLOTH 495 



constantly remains suspended by his feet, for his anatomy is 

 such that he can feel comfortable in no other position. In this 

 manner he will rest for hours together, expressing his satis- 

 fiction by a kind of purring, and from time to time his dismal 

 voice may be heard resounding through the forest, and awaken- 

 ing at a distance a similar melancholy cry. 



The colour of the sloth's hair so strongly resembles the hue 

 of the moss which grows on the trees, that the European finds 

 it very difficult to make him out when he is at rest, and even 

 the falcon-eyed Indian, accustomed from his earliest infancy to 

 note the slightest signs of forest life, is hardly able to distinguish 

 him from the branches to which he clings. This no doubt 

 serves him as a -protection against the attacks of many enemies; 

 but, far from being helpless, his powerful claws and the pecu- 

 liarly enduring strength of his long arms, make very efficient 

 weapons of defence against the large tree snakes that may be 

 tempted to make a meal of him. 



Among other strange stories related of the sloth, it has been 

 asserted that he lives but on the leaves of one particular tree, 

 the cecropia, and that when he has entirely stripped it, 

 and feels the torments of hunger, he drops upon the ground, 

 and then with the greatest difficulty, and many a piteous 

 moan, strives to attain the nearest cecropia that has not yet 

 been plundered of its foliage. It is hardly necessary to point 

 out how very improbable it is that, among the infinite variety of 

 leaves in the primeval forest, the choice of the sloth should thus 

 be limited to one species, and that with his great facility of 

 locomotion in the trees he should unnecessarily subject himself 

 to a painful fall and a most irksome journey. During his 

 extensive wanderings in the forests of Gruiana, Schomburgk 

 never once saw a tree that had been robbed of its verdure, 

 though sometimes ten or twelve sloths might be seen clinging 

 to its branches ; and Waterton even hazards a conjecture that 

 by the time the animal had finished the last of the old leaves, 

 there would be a new crop on the part of the tree he had 

 stripped first, ready for him to begin again, so quick is the pro- 

 cess of vegetation in these damp and sultry wilds. 



The sloth possesses a remarkable tenacity of life, and with- 

 stands the dreadful effects of the wourali poison of the Macushi 

 Indians longer than any other animal. Schomburgk slightly 



