62 THE NATURAL HISTORY OF DISTANT LANDS 



by naturalists, some of whom, like UUoa, had seen a 

 live sloth, while others, like BuflFon, had not. Buffon 

 severely criticises Nature for turning out a creature so 

 ill-equipped and so wretched. At last Charles Waterton 

 showed that the sloth is by no means the pitiable object 

 which Buffon and his forerunners had painted; it is in 

 all respects well-adapted to its mode of life, and only 

 becomes grotesque or unhappy when removed from its 

 accustomed haunts, and hindered from using its natural 

 powers. 



The Anteater. Of the ant-bear, as he calls it, Oviedo 

 says that it has the skin of a bear, a long snout and no 

 tail ! It is defenceless, though it sometimes bites (Oviedo 

 seems not to be aware that the anteater has no teeth). 

 It feeds on ants (really on termites), which it manages 

 to secure in spite of the strength of their habitations. 

 In South America, Oviedo explains, the ant-hills are as 

 high as a man, and being alternately moistened by rain 

 and baked by the sun, become as hard as stone. The 

 entrance is close to the ground, and so small as to admit 

 nothing bigger than an ant. But the ant-bear finds 

 cracks on the surface of the fortress, into which it inserts 

 its tongue ; by continual licking these are widened more 

 and more until an effective breach is made. He knows 

 nothing of the use of the great claws in demolishing an 

 ant-hill, or in self-defence. 



The Manatee. Oviedo describes this animal as a fish, 

 though he is aware that it has a leathery, not a scaly, 

 skin, and teats for suckling its young. 



Birds. Oviedo gives Spanish names to the birds of 

 the West Indies and South America, entertaining little 

 suspicion that they were distinguished by peculiarities 

 more important than differences of size or colour. Lively 

 descriptions are met with in his pages, as when he says 



