204 



EDEXTATES. 



laying Mammals. It is further noteworthy that while among the ant-eating 

 Edentates the true ant-eaters and the pangolins have entirely lost their teeth, those 

 organs are retained in a comparatively high state of development among the aard- 

 varks. At the present day the Edentates are evidently a waning group, the whole 

 of the larger members of the order having died out ; while those which remain 

 have sought protection by the acquisition of either arboreal or burrowing habits, 

 or by the development of a protective coat of mail to their bodies. 



The Sloths. 



Family BRADYPODID.E. 



Although by the older zoologists the sloths were regarded as ill-formed 

 creatures destined to lead a miserable life on account of their misshapen limbs, 

 no animals are in reality better adapted to their peculiar mode of existence. We 



SKELETON OF THREE-TOED SLOTH. 



see this not only in their elongated limbs, which have been modified into hook-like 

 organs of suspension, with the removal of all superfluous digits and the great 

 development of the claws of those which remain ; but likewise in the extraordinary 

 resemblance of their coarse coat of hair to the shaggy lichens clothing the gnarled 

 and knotted boughs of their native forests. It is noteworthy that while the monkeys 

 of the same regions have mostly acquired a fifth limb by the development of the 

 prehensile power in their tails, the sloths have almost dispensed with tails 

 altogether. 



The sloths are characterised externally by their short and 

 rounded heads, in which the ears are very small and buried among 

 the fur, their rudimentary tails, and the excessive elongation of their fore-limbs, of 



Characteristics. 



