176 TOOTHLESS MAMMALS 
It has no defensive armor, not even spines. It is too large 
to live in a hole in a tree and too weak to dig a burrow in the 
earth. It is too tired to walk on its feet, as the monkeys 
do, so throughout its queer life it hangs underneath the 
branches of the trees in which it finds its food. Its feet are 
merely four hooks by which to hang. Since it feeds wholly 
upon leaves and buds, it lives in the tropical forests, where 
green leaves are plentiful and cheap. 
The sloth dwells only in the tree-tops, among the mon- 
keys and macaws. On the ground, it would be more helpless 
than a tortoise, and easily killed by any carnivore, or wild 
pig. In the tree-tops, it escapes the climbing ocelot by living 
far out on the ends of the branches; and it is fortunate for 
him that hawks, owls and eagles are scarce in the forests 
wherein he dwells. 
At this point, however, it is a pleasure to point out that 
Nature has done one special thing for the preservation of 
these odd creatures. The hair of a sloth is long, wavy and 
coarse, rather more like grass than hair, and in color and 
general appearance it is the best imitation of tree-bark that 
has been given to any quadruped. This resemblance to bark 
is heightened by the fact that the back hair of many a sloth 
in its native forest has a greenish tint, like moss on a tree- 
trunk, due to the presence on the hair of living vegetable 
algae. This aids the sloth in escaping observation. 
On the mighty Essequibo River, in British Guiana, I 
once made a special hunt for sloths. Having found it useless 
to hunt them by stalking through the dense and lofty forests, 
I took a leaky old canoe, an Indian to help furnish power, and 
