THE SLOTH 267 



the other animals within it ? Of the ant-eaters, arma- 

 dillos, pangolins, and aard-varks, which group is the 

 least divergent from the sloth — an animal apparently so 

 different froin them all ? 



As we have seen, that most exceptional character, a 

 divergence from the number seven in the bones of the 

 neck, would seem to connect the pangolins with the 

 sloths. But the resemblance is an absolutely isolated 

 one, and is accompanied by a great number of differ- 

 ences, not the least important of which is the geo- 

 graphical difference, since they respectively inhabit the 

 old and the new worlds only. 



The aard-vark in various points, but above all in tooth 

 structure, is so divergent from all other Edentates, that 

 it is quite impossible to recognise in it a creature with 

 any special relationship to the sloth. It again also 

 differs from the latter, in being an inhabitant of the 

 east side of the Atlantic. 



Armadillos, like sloths, are exclusively American 

 creatures, and they have simj^le teeth, w^hereas the 

 ant-eaters difler from the sloths in having none. But, 

 with this exception, it is impossil^le to detect any special 

 resemblance between these beasts, essentially terrestrial, 

 and burrowing and clothed in bony armour, and the 

 arboreal sloths, clothed with their coarse hair. 



There only remain, then, the ant-eaters wherewith to 

 compare the sloths, and they are different from them 

 indeed. As before said, nothing could well be more 

 different from the round-headed and tooth-provided 

 sloths, than the very long-snouted edentulous ant-eaters. 

 The existing ant-eaters, then, afford us no clue whatever 

 to any relationship which may exist between the sloth 

 and any animal which is not a sloth. We must therefore 

 turn to those organic records of the past, which remain. 



