Carnivora or flesh-eaters {seals, sea-lions. {dogs, cats, bears, lions, foxes, tigers, etc. Primates {Quadrumana, or four-handed, as apes and monkeys. {Homo (man). FOOTNOTES: [88] See Nature Reader, No. 3, p. 123. LESSON XLVII. A REMARKABLE FAMILY. “He prayeth best who loveth best All things both great and small, For the dear God who loveth us He made and loveth all.” --S. T. COLERIDGE. In our last lesson we enumerated the orders into which the mammalian class has been divided. Of six of these orders we have already studied representatives. We have found in the duck-bill and two other animals, the only species of the order of monotremes; the opossum and kangaroo furnished us examples of the pouched animals. The third order mentioned is that of the edentata, or tooth-lacking creatures, and some of its families we will now discuss. The name toothless is only partly descriptive of this group of mammals, because while some of them are really without any teeth, there are others that have the enormous number of ninety-eight. But all of the edentata are destitute of any teeth on the front of the jaws; there is always a vacant space there; and besides this, all the teeth are more or less imperfect, and have only one root. That vacant space in the front of the jaws, and the peculiarity of all the teeth being exactly alike, are constant characteristics of the edentata. All of these animals are slow and clumsy in their movements, show very little intelligence, and have sharp, strong claws on all their toes. They are all natives of warm countries, and are most numerous in South America. None of the living edentata are more than four feet long including the tail, and some are no larger than rats. But from rocks and shell-beds, deep in the earth, have been taken fossil remains of this family, showing creatures which lived far back in the early periods of earth-building, some of them as large as an ox, or a rhinoceros, or an elephant. The first of the edentata which we shall examine is called the sloth. It is a South American animal, and was for a long time classed among the monkeys, on account of its tree-climbing habits, and the long hair which covers its body. On the ground, to which it seldom descends, the sloth is the most ungainly of beasts. Its hind legs are very short, and its arms or fore legs are very long; its claws are strong and curved, and the toes are buried in the skin up to the nails, so that they can make no separate movements. Their leg joints turn outwards, and when the creatures try to walk on the ground, they are compelled to double up their fore legs and go on their knees. Moreover, these sloths cannot bear strong light. When placed on the earth in the sunshine they seem to be crippled and blind.