THE LIVING WORLD. 
481 
the back. Its coloring, together with the algae which abound upon it, serves 
as an assistance to that power of making itself invisible, though present, which 
is a characteristic of the whole sloth family. Thus identified in color with the 
tree, which it has selected, there is required an experienced eye to discern the 
ai. If missiles are thrown at it, it will patiently endure its punishment, 
having learned that “it is bet¬ 
ter to bear the ills we know, 
than suffer those we know not 
of.” The hunters shoot off the 
branch, and as the ai clutches 
like Macbeth at the empty air, 
Its whereabouts is no longer 
an unbetrayed secret. As the 
ai and other sloths feed upon 
leaves they can well afford to 
pass their time “up a tree” 
and let more grasping crea¬ 
tures energize for a living. It 
is known that a family of 
sloths passed several years 
without once coming down 
from the tree of which they 
had taken possession. This 
close confinement seems the giant armadillo. 
more wonderful, if we bear in 
mind that the sloth does not roost, or, like the marten, live in nests, but that 
it hangs by its claws to the branches, letting its back and the full weight of its 
body remain without support. It has been 
said that the more miserable the conditions 
of life the more strongly do creatures cling 
to it, and this truth is strikingly illustrated 
in the case of the sloth. Its existence seems 
sufficiently limited to furnish no exciting 
pleasures, and yet the creature displays not 
simply the greatest tenacity of life, but the 
greatest power of resisting all efforts of the 
grim reaper—Death. Possibly the Moham¬ 
medan heaven, to which alone it can look 
forward, seems to promise nothing that 
cannot be obtained on earth. The sloth, as 
a rule, lives alone—at times, in a family 
group; he is apathetic in his passions and 
affections, as well as in his individual 
desires. It is too phlegmatic to be com- 
two-toed seoth. bative, but if forced to act in self-defence 
throws itself upon its back and endeavors 
to embrace and strangle its adversary. He is the very type of the ennuyed, 
monosyllabic, empty-pated “ blarsted Britisher;” nothing can excite in him 
any surprise or interest, and no suffering seems to exert more than a moan of 
31 
