150 THREE-TOED SLOTH. 
ness : but those who attended to the natural his- 
tory of the new world, were astonished to find in 
a genuine viviparous quadruped a much more 
singular example of languid motion and habitual 
inactivity. The early accounts^ however, of this 
extraordinary animal seem to have been given 
with some degree of exaggeration ; and it was pre- 
tended that the creature could scarce advance a 
stone's throw in the space of fifteen days : that it 
required eight or nine minutes in order to move 
one foot to the distance of three inches: other ac- 
counts say, that the Sloth can scarcely move fifty 
paces in a day : all, however, who have had op- 
portunities of examining this species in its native 
climates, agree in representing it as the most tor- 
pid of quadrupeds; that it seems to move with 
the utmost difficulty, and it never exerts its pro- 
gressive powers except when urged by the neces- 
sity of obtaining food ; when it climbs, with great 
labour, to the tops of trees; and having gained 
this situation, continues to reside there till it has 
despoiled the tree of its foliage and fruit, when it 
is obliged to descend and to seek a fresh situa- 
tion : it is added, that in order to save itself the 
slow and laborious descent which it would other- 
wise be obliged to make, it suffers itself to fall to 
the ground; its tough skin and thick coarse hair 
sufficiently securing it from any unpleasant effect 
in its fall. The general appearance of the Sloth 
is extremely uncouth; the body is of a thick 
shape ; the fore legs short ; the hinder ones far 
longer : the feet, on all the legs^ are very small, but 
