EDENTATA. 231 



Hares are solitary in habit, but make their abodes not 

 far from one another. They live on herbs, roots, leaves, 

 fruit, and grain, and even gnaw the bark off trees. 

 They sleep during the day, and are active only at night. 

 Rabbits are smaller than hares, and have shorter ears 

 and tail. Their flesh is whiter than that of the hare. 

 They are very fecund, it having been calculated that the 

 progeny of a single pair would in four years number 

 twelve hundred thousand. In countries adapted to them 

 these animals, therefore, multiply so rapidly that the 

 soil can hardly yield crops enough for them, and they 



become pests to the farmer ; 



,,-. . J FIG. 162. 



this is now the case in 



certain provinces of Aus- 

 tralia. 



EDENTATA. 



The mammals compos- 

 ing this order have for a 

 common characteristic the 

 absence of front teeth; 

 some have no teeth at all. 

 By way of compensation 

 they have very well-de- 

 veloped claws. None of 

 them occur in Europe or in 



the United States. 



SLOTH. 

 As examples of edentata 



we will consider the sloths, the armadillos, the pango- 

 lins, and the ant-eaters. 



The sloth is a South American animal, about the size 

 of a cat, and looks like a deformed monkey ; its limbs 

 are not adapted for walking, and it lives suspended from 

 the branches of trees. 



