QUADRUPEDS. 85 
and laborious ; but the Sloth is not intended to be a ter- 
restrial animal. He lives in trees, always hanging below 
the branch, with his back to the ground : and for a life of 
this kind, his long arms and hooked claws are admirably 
adapted ; and Mr. Waterton, whose long residence in the 
wilds of South America, and whose habits of close obser- 
vation, render him an excellent authority, observes, that 
when the Sloth travels from branch to branch of the tree 
which he inhabits, particularly in windy weather, it is with 
such rapidity as to make it quite a misnomer to call him 
a Sloth. " The Sloth," says Mr. Waterton, "in its wild 
state, spends its whole life in the trees, and never leaves 
them, but through force or accident ; and what is more 
extraordinary, not upon the branches, like the squirrel 
and monkey, but under them. He moves suspended from 
the branch, he rests suspended from the branch, and he 
sleeps suspended from the branch. Hence his seemingly 
bungled composition is at once accounted for; and in 
lieu of the Sloth leading a painful life, and entailing a 
melancholy existence upon its progeny, it is but fair to 
conclude, that it just enjoys life as much as any other ani- 
mal, and that its extraordinary formation and singular 
habits are but further proofs to engage us to admire the 
wonderful works of Omnipotence." 
The Ai has always three toes ; but there is another 
kind of Sloth called the Unan, which has only two toes, 
and much shorter fore legs. 
The Sloths have only one young one at a time, which 
hangs to the breast of the mother, and makes a kind of 
cradle of her body, during her journeys from branch to 
branch ; in fact it appears never to quit her, till it is 
able to provide for itself. The female Sloth, when hang- 
ing from the branch, hides her young one in her thick, 
matted hair, which resembles in texture and appearance 
dry withered grass, and indeed is so like the rough bark 
and moss on old trees, as to render the animal scarcely 
