RUMINANTIA. 183 



crown marked with two double crescents, the convexity of 

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

 lower ones. 



The four feet are terminated by two toes and two hoofs 

 which face each other by a flat surface presenting the appear- 

 ance of a single hoof which has been cleft, whence the name of 

 cloven- footed, bifurcated, &c. which is applied to these animals. 



Behind the hoof are sometimes found two small spurs, the 

 vestiges of lateral toes. The two bones of the metatarsus and 

 metacarpus are united into one called the cannon, but in cer- 

 tain species there are also vestiges of lateral metatarsal and 

 metacarpal bones. 



The term Ruminantia indicates the singular faculty possessed 

 by these animals of masticating their food a second time, by 

 bringing it back to the mouth after a first deglutition. This 

 faculty depends upon the structure of their stomachs, of which 

 they always have four, the three first being so disposed that 

 the food may enter into either of them, the cesophagus termi- 

 nating at the point of communication. 



The first and largest is called the paunch; it receives a 

 large quantity of vegetable matters coarsely bruised by a first 

 mastication. From this it passes into the second, called the 

 honeycomb or bonnet, the parietes of which are laminated 

 like a honeycomb. This second stomach, very small and globu- 

 lar, seizes the food, moistens and compresses it into little pel- 

 lets, which afterwards successively ascend to the mouth to be 

 re-chewed. The animal remains at rest during this opera- 

 tion, which lasts until all the food first taken into the paunch 

 has been submitted to it. The aliment thus re-masticated 

 descends directly into the third stomach called the leaflet, 

 ( feuillet) on account of its parietes being longitudinally lami- 

 nated or like the leaves of a book; and thence to the 

 fourth or the caillette, the sides of which are wrinkled, and 

 which is the true organ of digestion, analogous to the simple 

 stomach of animals in general. In the young Ruminantia, or 

 so long as they subsist on the milk of the mother, the caillette 

 is the largest of the four. The paunch is only developed by 

 receiving increased quantities of grass, which finally give it 



