The second stomach is of a slender form, and is very
much smaller than the other. Its walls are thin for the first half of
its length, but towards the spot where the gut commences (the pylorus)
they are thick and muscular. A small fold occurs midway. There is a
fold in the body of the smaller or second stomach, and there is a
little hollow there with glands in it, and it is called the appendix to
the second stomach.
[Illustration: STOMACH OF SLOTH.]
The stomach is thus rather complicated, and its internal mucous
membrane is so thrown into folds, and made into hollow spaces, that it
occupies much more space than if it were a simple bag. This plan is
also well seen in those ruminating animals which, like the Ox, live
entirely upon vegetable substances; and it is evident that the diet of
the Sloth bears some relation to the complicated stomach.
In the Ai, the appendix to the second stomach is larger than that of
the Unau Sloth, and is more complicated.
HOFFMANN’S SLOTH.[61]
This is a Sloth with two clawed fingers on the fore, and with three
claws on the hinder extremities. Living specimens are occasionally
brought to Europe, especially from Porto Rico, so that its general
appearance may now and then be studied at the Zoological Gardens,
in the Regent’s Park. If it be looked at there in the day-time, it
certainly merits the name of Sloth, for it resembles a bundle of long,
light, brown hair, fixed on the top of a bar of wood close to an
upright branch, or huddled up in a corner on the ground; but in the
morning, and also late in the evening, the creature begins to move
slowly, and to look out for the food put for its use on the floor of
the den. All the Hoffmann’s Sloths have pale brown hair, whiter at the
tips, and a white face, showing a brown band across the nose, extending
to a ring round each eye. They have also a long and full crest of hair
on the neck, and the hair on the limbs is darker than that of the
rest of the animal. Dr. Peters, who discovered this Sloth, examined
the skeleton, and found only six vertebræ in the neck, and in this it
differs from the _Cholœpus_ just noticed.
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