Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XV.djvu/116

 108 SLOTH dimentary clavicle attached to the acromion; the hair is reversed on the forearm. It has been calculated that it can take only 50 steps a day, consuming a month in traversing a mile; Three-toed Sloth (Bradypus triductylus). if by chance it ascends a tree too remote from another to admit of a passage across, the na- tives say that it rolls itself in a ball and drops to the ground, and the thick wiry hair would render such a fall comparatively harmless ; from its habits it can rarely if ever drink ; its flesh and skin are useless ; in captivity it is exceed- ingly stupid and uninteresting. The unau or two-toed sloth (B. didactylus, Linn. ; genus Unau or Two-toed Sloth (Bradypus didactylus). cholapu*, Illig.) is mixed brown and white, paler below ; it is about 2 ft. long, with, ac- cording to Daubenton, 23 ribs on each side, of which 12 are true; the clavicles are complete, and the tail is wanting ; it has a longer muzzle and shorter fore legs than the three-toed spe- cies, and is more active, especially at night; it inhabits the same region, and is sometimes eaten by Indians and negroes. For the fossil edentates, see MEGALONYX, MEGATHERIUM, and MYLODON; for anatomical details, see COM- PARATIVE ANATOMY, and EDENTATA. SLUG SLOVAKS, a Slavic people, belonging to the western stem of the race, and inhabiting chiefly the mountainous regions of N. W. Hungary and the adjoining portions of Moravia. Their number is estimated at nearly 3,000,000, more than two thirds of whom are Catholics, and the remainder Lutherans. They are of medium stature, have blue eyes, straight and long hair, a yellowish skin, and generally coarse features. They are chiefly engaged in agriculture and mining. Numbers of them spend their lives wanderiog through various countries of Eu- rope, selling linen, mouse traps, and other articles of wire work. The language of the Slovaks is a sub-dialect of the Bohemian or Czech, which latter is generally used by them as a literary medium, as by Kollar, Schafarik, Holly, and other writers, and is also the lan- guage of their church services. The Slovaks occupied their present abodes early in the mid- dle ages, and in the 9th century they formed the nucleus of the Moravian empire until its destruction by the Magyars. SLOVENS, or Sloventzi. See WINDS. SLUG (Umax, Lam.), a genus of mollusk, be- longing to the air-breathing gasteropods. The form is elongated, tapering, snail-like, the head having two long and two short tentacles which can be extended and drawn in like the finger of a glove by being turned inside and out ; the naked body is covered anteriorly by a cori- aceous mantle, under which is the branchial cavity, the respiratory orifice and vent open- ing on the right side of it, and the generative orifice beneath the right tentacles; the man- tle in some contains a calcareous grit, and in others a small, thin, nail-like shell; the head can be partly drawn under the mantle ; at the posterior end of the body is a small aperture whence proceed the adhesive threads by which they let themselves down from plants which they ascend in search of food. Their motion is proverbially slow, and effected by the con- tractions of the flat disk or foot on the ventral surface. The upper jaw is in the form of a toothed crescent, by which they gnaw plants with great voracity ; the stomach is elongated ; the skin secretes a great quantity of mucosity, which serves to attach them to the surfaces on which they creep; the eyes are small black disks at the end of the posterior tentacles ; the sense of touch is delicate. The reproductive season is in spring and summer; they are hermaphrodite, and mutually impregnate each other ; the eggs, to the number of 700 or 800, are laid in moist and shady places ; at the ap- proach of winter they burrow into the ground, where they hibernate; they hide under decay- ing logs and stones in damp places, and arc seen in gardens and orchards in evening and early morning, especially after gentle and warm showers. They are found in the northern temperate zones of both hemispheres. The common slug of New England, L. tunicata (Gould), is nearly an inch long, varying in color from dark drab to blackish brown ; the