We investigate the tracking control for a class of nonlinear heterogeneous leader-follower multi-agent systems(MAS)with unknown external disturbances. Firstly, the neighbor-based distributed finite-time observers are proposed for the followers to estimate the position and velocity of the leader. Then, two novel distributed adaptive control laws are designed by means of linear sliding mode(LSM) as well as nonsingular terminal sliding mode(NTSM), respectively. One can prove that the tracking consensus can be achieved asymptotically under LSM and the tracking error can converge to a quite small neighborhood of the origin in finite time by NTSM in spite of uncertainties and disturbances. Finally, a simulation example is given to verify the effectiveness of the obtained theoretical results. Firstly, the neighbor-based distributed finite-time observers are proposed for the followers to estimate the position and velocity of the leader. Then, two novel distributed adaptive control laws are designed by means of linear sliding mode (LSM), respectively. One can prove that the tracking consensus can be asymptotically under LSM and the tracking error can converge to a quite small neighborhood of the origin in finite time by NTSM in spite of uncertainties and disturbances. Finally, a simulation example is given to verify the effectiveness of the obtained theoretical results.