122 



INITIATIVE IN EVOLUTION 



hardly to be imagined that a direct reversal of hair from the proper 

 bear-type, that is to say from the mouth to the head, would be 

 produced by the mere broadening of the 

 muzzle on account of some adaptation to 

 its altering life. The link surely is of a 

 different nature, and analogous to that of 

 the corresponding surface in the lion and 

 other cats, and that the cleaning of its 

 fur on the snout is done in feline and not 

 in ursine fashion, that 

 is to say forwards, 

 and that the breadth 

 of muzzle is the reason 

 for the change of 

 method. 



Two-Toed Sloth- 

 Choi ae pus 

 didactylus. 



This weird creature 

 is one of a decaying 

 family whom natura- 

 lists, with needless 

 and frank brutality, 

 called toothless. The 

 term is neither exact 

 nor polite. It is very 

 much as if one were 

 to call a person 

 whose front teeth had been 

 knocked out, but whose remaining teeth 

 were good and useful. But it represents 

 so important a taxonomic character 

 that one must allow for what seems bad 

 manners on the part of zoological leaders 



Fig. 47. —Fore foot of wlx ° are ' as a mle ' ^ ° f tiie milk ° f 

 llama shown from behind human kindness, and seldom in these days 

 (a) and from side (b) with quarrel even among themselves, adopting 

 whorls of hair and re- A ,, .,., & . 7 . ,. r ° 



versed areas on each side. " ie m °tto nihil animalium alienum a 

 me puto. 

 The sloths form an excellent example of the action of gravity 

 upon long thick hairs, and the Fig. 48 given will explain this. They 

 are New World animals, though indeed they have what we call an 



toothless " 



