. Cuvier's animal kingdom : arranged according to its organization. Animals. EDENTATA. 123 that, when these animals advance [on the ground], they are obliged to drag themselves forward on their elbows. The pelvis is so large, and the thighs so much directed outwards, that they cannot approxi- mate their knees. Their gait is the necessary consequence of so disproportioned [unusual] a struc- ture.* These animals inhabit trees, and nevei- remove from that on which they are located until they have stripped it of every leaf, so painful to them is the requisite exertion to reach another ; it is even
. Cuvier's animal kingdom : arranged according to its organization. Animals. EDENTATA. 123 that, when these animals advance [on the ground], they are obliged to drag themselves forward on their elbows. The pelvis is so large, and the thighs so much directed outwards, that they cannot approxi- mate their knees. Their gait is the necessary consequence of so disproportioned [unusual] a struc- ture.* These animals inhabit trees, and nevei- remove from that on which they are located until they have stripped it of every leaf, so painful to them is the requisite exertion to reach another ; it is even asserted that they let themselves fall from a branch to avoid the labour of descending. [The truth is, that these animals are modified for hanging by their limbs to the branches of trees, instead of sup. porting themselves upon the limbs Uke others : in this, their only natural posture, they are by no means slow in their movements ; and they inhabit the densely intertangled forests of South America, where hundreds of miles may be traversed by passing from one tree to another : clinging by the hinder claws, the posterior limbs securely embracing the bough, and generally by one of their fore-hmbs also, they employ the other to hook towards them the foliage on which they browze, whence the great length of their arms : and it is observed that in more open places, where the trees are less contiguous, the Sloths take advantage of windy weather to effect their transits, when the boughs are blown together and commingled. Their long and coarse shaggy hair protects them from insects : and in short, as is well remarked by Professor Buckland, the peculiar conformation of these animals ought no more to excite our pity and compassion, than the circumstance of fishes being deprived of legs. They are just as admirably adapted and fitly organized for their appointed singular mode of life as any other animal whatever.] The female produces but one young one at a birth, which she carries on her b
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1840, bookpublishe, booksubjectanimals
