ZOOLOGY. 



KOALO,, or New Holland Sloth. 



Treneric Character. — Bradypus or Sloth, having five toes 

 on each of the fore feet, and four toes on each of 

 the hind feet ; four cutting teeth in front ; the body 

 elongated, round, and covered with fine wool ; 

 the ears bushy and spreading, tipt with dark brown 

 behind ; the head flattened, round ; the legs short 

 and depressed, each foot armed with long crooked 

 prehensile claws ; the general colour cinereous, 

 mixed with a brown tint which predominates on 

 the back ; the nose flattened and incurvated down- 

 wards : the form of the molares is unknown. 



THE Bradypus or Sloth is one of those animals which 

 are in some degree allied to the Bear, the formation of the 

 legs and shoulders in a great measure resembling the latter. 

 From this analogy of shape and character, the animal which 

 has lately been discovered in the East Indies, and has been 

 described by Bewick as the Ursine Sloth, has excited in the 

 minds of different philosophers, an expectation of a new and 

 more correct arrangement of their genera and species. la 

 this hope however they have hitherto been disappointed, and 

 we shall most probably have to wait until farther discoveries 

 in'Natural History shall enable us more accurately to define, 

 those specimens which we at present exhibit. Even the 

 different species of Bears are not yet thoroughly understood, 

 those of Europe not being properly distinguished or de- 

 scribed ; but it is a point which the French writers are at 

 present endeavouring to clear up and make more systematical. 



