THE U.NAU. 167 



great district, these anatomical distinctions ai*e very interesting, and relate to their remote ancestors, 

 being hereditary legacies, which are of little or no importance in assisting the creature merely to 

 live. One of the differences between the Sloths is singular. The Unaus have a very remarkably 

 formed stomach, which may be said to be double. The first stomach is large and rounded, but it is 

 contracted behind, and then formed into a kind of conical appendix. This appendix is doubled 

 from left to right, and its cavity has a fold at its opening into the stomach. It forms a 

 special pai-t of the first stomach. Then it is to be noticed, that where the food enters the 

 stomach, or at the opening, which is called the cardia, there 

 is a pouch, looking like a bag at the end of the tube which 

 runs down from the gullet to the stomach. This is the 

 second part of the first stomach : and the third is a tube- 

 like space which connects the cardia with the stomach far- 

 away to the left. These three cavities form the first 

 stomach. The second stomach is of a slender form, 

 and is very much smaller than the other. Its walls are 

 thin for the first half of its length, but towards the spot 

 where the gut commences (the pylorus) they are thick and 

 muscular. A small fold occurs midway. There is a fold STOMACH OF SLOTH. 



in the body of the smaller or second stomach, and there 

 is a little hollow there with glands in it, and it is called the appendix to the second stomach. 



The stomach is thus rather complicated, and its internal mucous membrane is so thrown into 

 folds, and made into hollow spaces, that it occupies much more space than if it were a simple bag. 

 This plan is also well seen in those ruminating animals which, like the Ox, live entirely upon vege- 

 table substances ; and it is evident that the diet of the Sloth beai-s some relation to the complicated 

 stomach. 



In the Ai, the appendix to the second stomach is larger than that of the Unau Sloth, and is 

 more complicated. 



HOFFMANN'S SLOTH.* 



This is a Sloth with two clawed fingers on the fore, and with three claws on the hinder 

 extremities. Living specimens are occasionally brought to Europe, especially from Porto Rico, 

 so that its general appearance may now and then be studied at the Zoological Gardens, in the Regent's 

 Park. If it be looked at there in the day-time, it certainly merits the name of Sloth, for it resembles 

 a bundle of long, light, brown hair, fixed on the top of a bar of wood close to an upright branch, 

 or huddled up in a corner on the ground ; but in the morning, and also late in the evening, the 

 creature begins to move slowly, and to look out for the food put for its use on the floor of the den. 

 All the Hoffmann's Sloths have pale brown hair, whiter at the tips, and a white face, showing a 

 brown band across the nose, extending to a ring round each eye. They have also a long and full 

 crest of hair on the neck, and the hair on the limbs is darker than that of the rest of the animal. 

 Dr. Peters, who discovered this Sloth, examined the skeleton, and found only six vertebrae in the 

 neck, and in this it differs from the Cholcepus just noticed. 



When its food, consisting of carrots and lettuce, and bread-aiid-milk, is put down in the 

 morning it is soon in movement, and enjoys its meal hanging down from a bar with its hind legs, 

 and resting its back on the floor of the cage. It seizes the food between the claws and the long 

 straight palm of the fore-foot, and passes it into its mouth, chewing actively with the molar teeth ? 

 especially with the first, which are shai-p. It cares little for the spectators, and when it has finished, 

 slowly mounts up into a corner of its little den and settles down to sleep. In the evening it becomes 

 lively, for it is, and, indeed, all Sloths are, nocturnal in habit. The hairless snout, of a light red 

 tint, the absence of " smellers," the little eyes with a few hairs around them, and the broad forehead, 

 give the animal a curious appearance. The hair is brushed back on the forehead, and comes 

 around the very small eai-s on to the cheeks, and is whitey-brown, and this same tint is seen over the 

 whole of the back in long slender hairs. But the under hair is light red or red-brown. The long and 



* Choloepus HoffmannL 



