Traces of Animal Habits 152 
Tt wil! be well to look first at an extreme instance—that of the Two-T'oed Sloth 
of Central and South America. The long hair of this creature, instead of lying as the 
hair of a Skye-terrier does, is disposed on most of the head, trunk, and limbs so that 
it falls wpwards, if one may so say. ‘This is not at all surprising when we remember 
that it is in the almost unique position—which it shares with a select circle of its 
slothful relatives and the bats—of spending most of its life upside down. This sloth 
hangs all day and probably most of the night in dark moist forests, clinging by its 
powerful well-adapted claws to the boughs of trees, descending reluctantly and at night 
to the ground in search of food. A very slight examination of its tell-tale hairy ‘coat 
would declare at once its prevailing habit of life, even if we did not know it from 
other sources. 
By way of contrast let us look at the long hairy coat of a Baboon as it stands 
on all fours. One can have no doubt, if one examine the direction of the hair 
and thus decipher the record of its habits, that to sit, and not to lie, stand, or walk, 
is its favourite habit. In the uniform slope of hair from stem to stern, from head to 
gluteal region, can be seen at once the unmistakable signs of much sitting. It is on 
the gluteal region particularly that the direction of hair is seen to be foreign to 
other habits than that of sitting. The baboon is here taken as a representative of 
many other monkeys and apes. The two instances of the sloth and baboon show 
how a prevailing habit can he traced in the hair, and how the less favourable 
attitudes fail to impress themselves. We know quite well that a sloth can and does 
walk, trot and stand, and that a baboon can and does walk, trot, stand and le, but 
the records of these habits are obliterated and neutralised by the preponderating 
habit of each animal. 
The Great Anteater is another animal that carries about on its coat clear 
evidence of its sluggish habit of hfe. Not so slothful as its near relative the sloth, 
if is one of the notable sluggards of the tropical world. Living in the same countries 
as the sloth, it spends its day in a lair among the long grass, emerging rarely into 
the light of day for food. It surely must have been a lineal ancestor of the rustic 
youth whose ideal of 
happiness was “to sit 
all day on a gate and 
eat fat bacon.” In its 
most favoured attitude it 
lies on one side, curled 
up, with its limbs tucked 
under its body, the whole 
being encircled by its 
enormous bushy tail. It 
thus stamps on its hairy 
coat the signs of its 
favourite attitude and 
business in life; for 
when it stands or walks 
one can see that the 
stiff long hai lies in 
that direction which 
makes it fit the curled-up 
position, and certainly 
x € 1 oO. 
Showing streams of hair on fore-limbs and femoral region of hind-limbs altered by not that of standing 
action of gravity. Kven its skeleton is 
CHACMA BABOON. 
