74 THE WONDERS OF THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 



impossible not to be moved with compassion : it also sheds tears, and upon the whole persuades one 

 that a creature so defenceless and so abject ought not to be tormented. 



To try an experiment with this animal, the Provincial had one of them brought to the Jesuits' 

 College at Carthagena. He put a long pole under its feet, which it seized very firmly, and would 

 not relinquish its hold. The animal therefore thus voluntarily suspended was placed between two 

 beams, where it remained without food for forty days, the eyes being always fixed on those who 

 looked at it, who were so affected that they could not forbear pitying its dejected state. At length 

 being taken/lown, a dog was let loose on it, which after a while the sloth seized in its paws, and held it 

 till it died of hunger. In ascending a tree this animal, first carelessly, stretches out one of its fore paws, 

 and fixes its claws in the bark of the tree, as high as it can reach, then heavily raises its body, and 

 gradually fixes its other paw, thus ascending with the greatest apparent difficulty. When he has 

 reached the top of the tree, he continues there till he has despoiled it of every thing that can serve 

 him for food, and then to save himself the trouble of a tedious and difficult descent, it is said that he 

 suffers himself to drop from the tree upon the ground, being secured from any injury in the fall by 

 his very tough and hairy skin. Here he remains till the imperious calls of hunger again incite him 

 to the arduous task of climbing another tree. 



These animals are alwa} 7 s the most active during the night, at which time they utter their plaintive 

 cry, ascending and descending in perfect tune through the hexachord, or six successive musical intervals. 

 When the Spaniards first arrived in America, and heard this unusual noise, they fancied they were 

 near some nation, the people of which had been instructed in European music. 



A sloth that was taken by some person who went out in the expedition under Woodes Rogers, w-as 

 brought on board the ship, and put down at the lower part of the mizen-shrouds. It climbed to the 

 mast-head, but occupied two hours in what a monkey would have performed in less than half a minute. 

 It proceeded with a slow and deliberate pace, as if all its movements had been directed by machinery. 



The two-toed sloth, although heavy and excessively awkward in its motions, has sufficient activity 

 to ascend into anddescend from the loftiest trees several times in the course of a day. Like the last 

 species, he is chiefly alert in the evenings and during the night. 



The Marquess de Montmirail, some years ago, purchased one of these animals at Amsterdam. It 

 had been fed with sea-biscuit, but he was told that as soon as the winter was over, and the verdure 

 began to appear, it would require nothing but leaves. These he ate freely while they were green and 

 tender, but the moment they began to be dry and shrivelled, or worm-eaten, he refused them. During 

 the three years that the Marquess had him, his common food was bread, apples, roots, and milk ; but 

 he was so heavy and inanimate, that he did not even recognize the hand that fed him. 



In its general appearance, as well as in size, it bears a considerable resemblance to the Tridactylus; 

 it is, however, somewhat more slender in its shape, covered with smoother or less coarse and harsh 

 hair, and, like that species, is of a uniform colour. 



Of the habits of the ursine sloth, in its savage state, few particulars have been obtained ; it is not 

 numerous even in the country where it is indigenous, and its skin is the only object for which it is 

 sought after. 



