THE LIVING WORLD. 
480 
three-toed sloth. 
and its black face is clear-shaven. His long claw-armed legs are so joined to 
his skeleton as to render it easy for. him to hang without effort with his face 
to the sky and his back 
to the ground ; his col¬ 
oring, likewise, so in¬ 
creases his invisibility 
as to suggest another 
adaptation of the crea¬ 
ture to its environment. 
Its home is in the tree- 
top, and it will never 
descend unless starva¬ 
tion drives it to a new 
source of supplies. Its 
paws have great 
strength, and if the ani¬ 
mal is attacked by a 
dog while it is on the 
ground it will turn upon 
its back, and if it once 
succeeds in getting hold of the dog it will squeeze and claw it to death. The 
sloth * is nocturnal, and while not preternaturally frisky, even then manifests 
more signs of life 
than during the 
day. When 
struck, it moans, 
but gives no other 
evidences of re¬ 
sentment. The 
sloth has become 
a symbol for sheer 
laziness, and 
whatever may be 
the unknown mis¬ 
sion of its life, 
has been less 
misrepresented 
than many an¬ 
other animal, 
such, for instance, 
as the lion or the 
birds in the wild- 
The Ai (Arc- 
topithecus ai , or 
fl accidus ,) dis¬ 
turbs the silence 
and increases the weirdness of the Brazilian forests by its oft-repeated cry of 
ai , <zz, ai. The at is a three-toed sloth, grayish-brown in color and streaked on 
three banded armadillo ( Tolypentes tricinctus). 
