QUADRUPEDS. 



FIG. 453. THREE-TOED SLOTH AND GIANT AKMAUILLO. 



the mighty rivers of South America, it lives entirely upon the foliage, the buds, 

 and the young shoots. To this singular mode of life the structure of the sloths 

 is adapted with the same consummate wisdom and skill which are manifest 

 in all other works of God. The sloth spends his whole life in trees, and, what 

 is more extraordinary, not iipon the branches, but under them he rests sus- 

 pended from a bough, and he sleeps suspended from it. To enable him to do 

 this, he must have a very different formation from any other quadruped. There 

 is a saying among the Indians, that when the wind blows the sloth begins 

 to travel. In calm weather he remains tranquil, probably not liking to cling 

 to the brittle extremities of the branches, lest they should break with him in 

 passing from one tree to another ; but as soon as the wind rises, the boughs of 

 the neighbouring trees become interwoven, and then the sloth seizes hol4 of 

 them and pursues his journey in safety. He travels at a good round pace, and 

 as he swings himself from tree to tree with indefatigable industry, seems little 

 to merit the commiseration generally extended to him by writers who have 

 never seen him in his state of activity. 



The Armadillos (Dasypus)* are remarkable amongst all other quadrupeds 

 by having the head, body, and often the tail, covered by a hard stony coat, 

 arranged in compartments something like a mosaic pavement. This substance, 

 which may be considered a kind of agglutinated hair, forms a broad buckler 

 over the forehead ; a second, very large and convex, over the shoulders ; a third, 

 similar to the preceding, on the crupper; and between these two last there are 

 several parallel and moveable bands which allow the body to be bent. The 



* 8aa6s, dasys, hairy ; TTOVS, pous, afoot: hairy-footed. 



