THE THREE-TOED SLOTH. 



every direction, and has fome refemblance to the ftalks of dried grafs. Its 

 face is flat and broad, fomewhat refembling that of a Monkey; the mouth 

 extends from ear to ear; the nofe is blunt; the ears very fmall; and the 

 eyes fmall, black, and heavy: upon the whole, the countenance exhibits 

 fuch appearance of diftrefs as to excite companion in the beholder. Its 

 general colour refembles that of dry dull or dirt, with a yellowifh call, but 

 it is fubjecl: to fome flight variations; the colour of the face and throat is a 

 dirty white, and a dark coloured broad ftripe extends the whole length of 

 the back. The legs are thick and llrong, and the feet proceed from the 

 body in fuch an oblique direction, that the foles of them cannot touch the 

 ground, fo that when the animal attempts to walk, it fcrapes the back of its 

 nails along the furface of the earth, and then wheeling the limb about in a 

 circular direction, it at length advances flowly one itep; the other limbs are 

 then moved in their turns with equal difficulty: no wonder then that this 

 animal is not able to advance more than three yards in the fpace of an hour. 

 But although the legs and claws are ill formed for walking, they are molt 

 admirably well adapted to cling round the boughs of trees with the moft 

 perfect fecurity, in which iituation it palTes the greateft part of its life, and 

 fo llrong is its gralp, that nothing which it has once feized can ever efcape 

 from it without permiflion; for Kircher (a) informs us, that a Sloth feized 

 a Dog, which was let loofe at it, and held it faft with its feet for four days, 

 at the end of which time the poor Dog perilhed through pain and hunger. 

 The Sloth never changes its Iituation, except when ftrongly urged by the 

 powerful calls of hunger; and then it only craw T ls from one tree to another, 

 which is a work of infinite labour, and often takes the poor creature a 

 whole week to accomplifh. Providence has, therefore, kindly given it a 

 conftitution which enables it to exift a long time without food, as appears 

 from an experiment tried on one which, having fattened itfelf to a long pole 

 by its feet, remained in that Iituation without motion, Deep, or fultenance, 

 during the fpace of forty days. It fubfifts entirely on vegetable fubftances, 

 and chiefly on the leaves and fruit of trees, and it will frequently alfo eat 



(a) Quoted by Pennant. 



