Sloth (Bradypus pallidus).—The general color of the sloth is reddish grey, its abdomen lighter. It is about sixteen inches in length, and has three long claws on each foot.
It inhabits the thickets of the virgin forests of Brazil, passing its life in laziness upon the tops of trees, the leaves of which form its food. During the day it hangs down asleep from a bough, and is then only discovered with difficulty. In the same position it creeps along the boughs, and does not leave the tree until the latter is stripped of all its leaves and fruits. When it descends to the ground it is very helpless, and can neither walk nor stand. It gives the best proof of its skill when climbing, hanging down from a bough by means of one of its feet, while it seizes the fruits with the other. It sometimes pierces the large snakes of Brazil with its long claws, so that they die from loss of blood. Its attachment to its young is very touching and the mother carries them on her back from bough to bough.
POUCHED ANIMALS (Marsupialia)
The marsupials have in the abdomen a pouch, a sort of bag or purse, in which they carry about their young. In some species the hind legs are developed to an extraordinary degree, whereby they are enabled to jump great distances. Their original home is Australia; but several species are also found in America. They feed partly on plants, partly on animal matter.
Kangaroo (Macropus giganteus).—The fur of the kangaroo is greyish brown, somewhat lighter on the sides, while the lower parts are whitish. Its body is six feet long, and its tail nearly three feet. It inhabits Australia, and is found chiefly in New South Wales and Tasmania. It is the largest quadruped of that part of the globe. The front of its body is extremely slim in proportion to its hind quarters, and its hind legs are five times longer than the front ones. The kangaroo is a peaceful, shy, grazing animal. When startled it tries to get away from its pursuers by immense bounds. Its swiftness is so great that, at least across flat country, the fastest dog cannot equal it. But when it is brought to bay it will defend itself most pertinaciously with its sharp claws, and with powerful strokes of its tail. It will seize even large dogs with its fore feet, and tear open their breasts and abdomens, often carrying them to neighboring water to drown them. The flesh of the kangaroo is eaten; its hair makes a good fur.
Koala (Phascolarctus cinereus), a marsupial, restricted to eastern Australia. The toes of [205] the fore-feet are in two opposable groups, of two or three, a characteristic not found in any other quadruped, but well adapted to grasping the branches of trees, on which the koala often hangs with its back undermost, like the sloth. There is scarcely any rudiment of a tail.
Opossum (Didelphys virginiana).—The American opossum is perhaps the best known and certainly not the least interesting of the pouched animals. It abounds in the warmer parts of North America, extending considerably north of Virginia. In form it is robust and in size about that of an ordinary cat. The color of its fine wholly fur ranges from white to black, and includes numerous varieties of intermixture. They have a long tail, which is almost destitute of hair, and is very useful from its prehensile nature, enabling the animal not only to hang by it, but also to climb and descend trees. They are sly and live chiefly in trees, lying up in the daytime, and at night roaming in search of their food, which consists of insects, small reptiles, birds’ eggs, etc. Caught red-handed in one of its marauding excursions, or captured under any other circumstances, the slightest blow causes it immediately to feign death, even to the extent of a protruding tongue and film-covered eyes. It may be battered almost beyond recognition and will lie where it has been flung without so much as the flicker of an eyelid. The moment, however, that its captor takes attention from it, the presumably dead animal regains its feet and effects its escape. “Possuming” is a slang term that has come into use to denote the acme of human artfulness and deceit.
A wonderfully pretty species of opossum which lives in Surinam is scarcely larger than a good-sized mouse, the body measuring only six inches from the nose to the root of the tail. It has scarcely a vestige of pouch, and so, robbed of this advantage, it carries its young on its back, curling its tail over, so as to allow the little ones to twist their tails around it. With her progeny thus secured from falling the mother can pursue her way in comfort. Even some of the larger opossums adopt this method of carrying their young.
BATS AND OTHER FLYING MAMMALS
A Bat is provided with true wings, with which it is able not merely to propel itself through the air for a longer or a shorter distance, but to fly like a bird by beating the air with its anterior members. The Colugo, in common with the Flying Squirrel and the Flying Phalanger, has the skin of the flanks extended in a manner capable of sustaining the animals, very much in the manner of a parachute, in an extended leap through the air. But bats possess the power of true flight. They move through the air with ease, and in pursuit of their insect-prey wheel and double and circle about with a nimbleness that the human eye can only follow with difficulty.