HELPLESSNESS OF SLOTHS 
That the creature which Buffon declared needed only one 
more defect to put an end to its race altogether, should have 
all the assistance in hiding it can get, is evident, for it is quite 
incapable of making any serious defense — or even trying to. 
““Here we have,” says Tschudi, ‘‘a symbol of life under the ut- 
most degree of listlessness, and of the greatest insensibility ina 
state of languid repose. This emblem of misery fixes itself on 
an almost leafless bough, and there remains defenseless; a 
ready prey to any assailant.” Big weasels climb the trees and 
fasten upon its throat; harpies tear it loose and carry it off to 
their eyries; cats, large and small, take one when they find it 
without making any exertion; ‘‘a hungry bear collects a family 
of sloths as he would gather a bunch of grapes;” and a hungry 
Indian or negro does the same, when he is not too lazy to climb 
and search the tree from which some evening he hears the tardo’s 
wailing cry. The sloth does his best, however, to escape notice, 
remaining all day in motionless simulation of some feathery tuft 
of moss or mistletoe, and making his slow excursions about the 
branches only after dusk. If you shoot him, he will probably 
hang dead by his hooks until decomposition relaxes the muscles. 
No one has written of the sloth more knowingly than Dr. 
Felix Oswald,”° who has told us so much of the intimate life of 
the animals of Mexico; and those who cannot get access to his 
book may find large quotations from it in the excellent “Standard 
Natural History.”” Other worthy sources of information are 
Alston, who quotes in his account a long and quaint descrip- 
tion by old Dampier; and the ever readable writings of H. W. 
Bates* and Thomas Belt.” 
As to the armadillos, the bony armor by which all are more 
or less protected, and which is unique among living Arma- 
mammals, is only one of many extraordinary fea- 
tures in their anatomy. Not only are they considerably re- 
moved in structure from the sloths and ant-eaters, but they 
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