EDENTATA. 



Fig. 26. 



47 



Skeleton of the Armadillo. 

 Fig. 27. 



Skeleton of the Hants. 

 Fig. 28. 



Skeleton of the Megatherium. 



stretching out their hands, which in the A'i or 

 Bradypus tridactyhu are of great length, to 

 enable them to lay hold of the extreme twigs, 

 and bring them to the mouth. Their progres- 

 sion on the ground is excessively slow and 

 awkward, and should they be obliged to have 

 recourse to it either from accident or from 

 being forced by famine to seek a new tree on 

 which to obtain their subsistence, they quit it 

 as speedily as their peculiar organization will 

 permit, and ascend the nearest tree with an 

 nwk \vnrd attempt at alacrity. The whole of 



their structure is admirably adapted to these 

 extraordinary habits; and although upon a 

 comparison of these slow-moving creatures 

 with the active and intelligent and elegant ani- 

 mals which form the more conspicuous groups 

 of the Edentata, they may appear to possess 

 but few advantages of structure, and little to 

 excite interest in their habits, yet a careful 

 investigation into the relation between their 

 organization and their mode of life will -ehew 

 that not even in the most elevated forms of 

 the animal creation, does the wisdom of the 



