. Juvenile Instructor . ANIMALS THAT HANG UP TO SLEEP. THERE is one animal which lives en-tirely in trees, but is able to maintainits position during slumber withoutthe least exercise of muscular force. This isthe sloth, common in the forests of tropicalAmerica. Its long claws are so bent thatthey hook over the branches and allow thecreature to hang upside down like an anima-ted hammock. Curiously enough, the ham-mock appears to be a South American inven- tion, and is universally employed by all theIndian tribes of the Amazons. Perhaps theprimitive human dwellers in this region tookto sleeping
. Juvenile Instructor . ANIMALS THAT HANG UP TO SLEEP. THERE is one animal which lives en-tirely in trees, but is able to maintainits position during slumber withoutthe least exercise of muscular force. This isthe sloth, common in the forests of tropicalAmerica. Its long claws are so bent thatthey hook over the branches and allow thecreature to hang upside down like an anima-ted hammock. Curiously enough, the ham-mock appears to be a South American inven- tion, and is universally employed by all theIndian tribes of the Amazons. Perhaps theprimitive human dwellers in this region tookto sleeping in hammocks after observing thehabits of the sloth. The great ant-eater, which is both a kins-man and fellow-countryman of the sloth, hasan enormous tail which it uses in a very re-markable manner. I recently saw two ofthese strange animals lying together asleep,. THE GREAT ANT-EATER. ANIMALS THAT HANG UP TO SLEEP. 553 and thev had arranged their tails so cleverlythat their whole bodies were hidden from it was evident that this caudal cov-erlet would afford excellent protection fromthe weather, for the central solid part of thetails acted as a kind of ridge-pole over thehighest part of the sleepers bodies, so thatthe long fringes of hair sloped downward oneach side like the thatch upon a roof. Like the sloths, many kinds of bats sleepsuspended by their hooked claws, without anymuscular exertion whatever. Some of thelarge fruit-eating bats of the tropics, whichdo not sleep in holes like the species common in southern latitudes, but which hang sus-pended to the branches of trees in the open. air, adopt a position which it would be diffi-cult to beat for economy and comfort. Gouldsfruit-eating bat, common to the warmer partsof Australia, suspends itself upside down byone hind foot, and wraps its body in the tent-like folds of its win
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