154 
WANDERINGS IN 
THIRD 
.7 OUR HEY 
become the sport of the winds. Thus his deficiency 
of tail is a benefit to him; it is merely an apology 
for a tail, scarcely exceeding an inch and a half in 
length. 
I observed, when he was climbing, he never used 
his arms both together, but first one and then the 
other, and so on alternately. There is a singularity 
in his hair, different from that of all other animals, 
and, I believe, hitherto unnoticed by naturalists; 
his hair is thick and coarse at the extremity, and 
gradually tapers to the root, where it becomes fine 
as a spider’s web. His fur has so much the hue of 
the moss which grows on the branches of the trees, 
that it is very difficult to make him out when he is 
at rest. 
The male of the three-toed sloth has a longitudinal 
bar of very fine black hair on his back, rather lower 
than the shoulder-blades; on each side of this black 
bar there is a space of yellow hair, equally fine; it 
has the appearance of being pressed into the body, 
and looks exactly as if it had been singed. If we 
examine the anatomy of his fore-legs, we shall im¬ 
mediately perceive by their firm and muscular tex¬ 
ture, how very capable they are of supporting the 
pendent weight of his body, both in climbing and at 
rest; and, instead of pronouncing them a bungled 
composition, as a celebrated naturalist has done, we 
shall consider them as remarkably well calculated to 
perform their extraordinary functions. 
As the sloth is an inhabitant of forests within the 
tropics, where the trees touch each other in the 
