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Show 1871.] DR. J. E. GRAY ON THE BRADYPODIDA. 429 Mr. Janson, junior, both inquired of me if I knew any green species of Sloth, for that was the colour of the living species in Nicaragua. There seems a tendency, according to the examination of the dried skins, in several of the species to be more or less tinted with this very unusual colour among Mammalia ; and the colour seems to fade in the preserved skin; for the skin of the three-toed Sloth, which Dr. Seemann brought with him and said was quite green when alive, is only green on the sides, which have been covered by the arms and consequently less exposed than the other parts of the body. In one of the specimens of the Unan or two-toed Sloth, the long hair of the back of the head is whitish, and more or less dark green in a great part of its length, looking as if it had been all bright dark-green when it was alive. Unfortunately a few only of the specimens in the Museum, those more lately received, have their special habitat. The rest were received from the Zoological Society or the Haslar Hospital, or have been purchased of dealers, and have only had the habitat of South America attached to them. I have received the following interesting letter from Dr. Seemann:- " DEAR SIR,-The Sloth (Arctopithecus) I brought home was caught in the woods surrounding the Javali gold-mine in the Chontales district of Nicaragua, about 2000 feet above the sea-level, a country having nine months of rain during the year. The natives call this animal ' Camaleon,' and say that it is very rare, which may be the case, as during all m y travels in the country I have never met with it before. But, on the other hand, it should be borne in mind that it has almost exactly the same greyish-green colour as Tillandsia usneoides, the so-called ' vegetable horsehair' common in the district; and if it could be shown that it frequented trees covered with that plant (a point I hope to ascertain during m y next visit in June next), there would be a curious case of mimicry between this Sloth's hair and the Tillandsia, and a good reason why so few of these Sloths are seen. When the animal first came into my possession it was much greener than its preserved skin is now, which has been dried over the fire, and it remains to be seen whether the greenness is owing, at least in part, to the fact that the hair becomes covered with minute cryptogamic organisms, the damp climate and thick gloomy forests being favourable to their growth. I had no microscope with me to clear up this point; but this you will, of course, easily ascertain. I had the animal alive for about a month, feeding it on the young leaves of Cecropia peltata, an urticaceous fast-growing tree of the district; and it used to eat most during the night, when it was also most lively. One night it escaped from its prison, and next morning was found about 800 yards off, in a water-but, whither it had to make its way over a cleared hill, where there were no shrubs nor trees, which rather puzzled me. During my temporary absence from Javali the servants neglected to feed it, or else I had hoped to bring it to London, to present it to Dr. Sclater. It had great strength ; and in order to pull it away from the tree to which it was holding, your hands were necessary. On those |