304 NATURAL mSTORT [cwap. xxvii. 



covering of woolly fur, which is often pure white with 

 irit^gHlai blfick spots or blotches, or sometimes ashy brown 

 witli or without white ispots. They live in trees, feeding 

 upon the leaves, of which they devour larj^e quantities. 

 They move al>ont slowly, and are difficult to kill, owing to 

 the thickness of their fur, and their tenacity of life. A heavy 

 charge of shot will often lodge in the skm and do theiu no 



harm, and even breaking the spine or piercing the brain 

 will not kill them for some lioui's. The natives everj' where 

 eat their flesh, and as their motions are so slow, easily 

 catch them hy climhing ; so that it is wonderful they have 

 not been exterminated. It may be, however, that their 

 dense woolly fur protects them from birds of prey, and the 

 islands they live in are too tliinly inhabited for man to be 



