94 VERTEBRATES : MAMMALS. 



The feet of Ruminantia are terminated by two toes 

 and two hoofs, appearing like a single hoof which has 

 been cleft. Hence they are often called cloven-footed 

 animals. Behind the hoofs and higher up are generally 

 to be found two rudimentary toes. The two bones of the 

 metatarsus and metacarpus are generally united into one, 

 called the cannon. With few exceptions, the head of the 

 males, and in many cases of the females also, is armed 

 with horns. Excepting Camelidae, the Ruminantia have 

 no incisors in the upper jaw, but in nearly all cases eight 

 in the lower, which shut against a callous pad above. Be- 

 tween the incisors and the molars there is a vacant space, 

 which in some cases contains one or two canines. There 

 are six molars in each side of both jaws, which have their 

 flat crowns marked with two double crescents, the convex- 

 ity of which is turned inwards in the upper, and outwards 

 in the lower ones. Of all animals the Ruminants seem to 

 be the most useful to man, furnishing him with flesh and 

 milk for food, and hides for leather ; and many of them are 

 used for beasts of burden and for draught. The Rumi- 

 nantia may be divided into three great groups : those with 

 solid and usually deciduous horns, as the Deer, and called 

 the Cervidae, or Deer Family ; those with permanent 

 horns, consisting of an exterior hollow horn encasing a 

 bony process of the skull, as the Antelopes, Goats, Sheep, 

 and Oxen, and called the Cavicornia Family ; and those 

 which have no horns, as the Camels and Llamas, and 

 called the Camelidae, or Camel Family. 



CERVIDAE, OR DEER FAMILY. This Family, as stated 

 above, comprises all Ruminants which have the horns 

 solid, and, excepting the Giraffe, deciduous. These prom- 

 inences, or horns, are at first covered with skin similar to 

 that upon the rest of the head. At their base is a ring 

 of bony tubercles, which, as they enlarge, compress and 

 obliterate the bloodvessels of that skin, and the latter be- 



