484 ANATOMY OF VERTEBEATES. 



Ruminants are said to ' divide the hoof.' In the Giraffe, fig. 310, 

 Antelopes, fig. 330, and Deer, fig. 311, the proximal phalanx is longer 

 than the next : in the Ox and Musk-deer the difference is small : 

 in the Chevrotains, they are more nearly of the same length. In 

 the Giraffe, as in the Camel-tribe, there is no trace of other toes : 

 in most true Ruminants stunted portions of them are suspended to 

 the back part of the distal end of the cannon-bone, whence dangle 

 the pair of ' spurious hoofs,' fig. 330, h. In the Bison the bones 

 of these consist in each of the middle and distal phalanges : and 

 there is a styliform representative of the proximal end of their 

 respective metacarpals articulated, in the fore-foot, one to the 

 connate trapezoid, the other to the unciform and cuneiform bones. ^ 

 In Deer the spurious hoofs are supported by the three phalanges 

 proper to the second and fifth digits, and by a styliform distal 

 end of their respective metacarpals with the point upward : these 

 hooflets are large enough in the Rein-deer, fig.311, to usefully 

 increase the base of the ' snow-shoe,' formed by its broad hairy 

 and horny foot, with the advantage of their collapse as the foot is 

 withdrawn. The Moschus moschiferus has a similar bony structure 

 of the second and fifth digits; while the still smaller Chevro- 

 tains, like the embryos of larger Ruminants, show so much more 

 of the generalised foot-structure as is exemplified by the ex- 

 tension of the slender metacarpals of those ' spurious hoofs ' 

 from them to the carpus. 



The OS innominatum is elongate with the iliac portion con- 

 cave lengtliAvise, convex across, externally, mth the expanded 

 anterior end divided by a ridge into the portions h and c, fig. 

 332, articulating mth the sacrum, a, and rising as high as, or 

 above, the sacral spine : the portion, c, is thickest and broadest 

 in the heavier Ruminants : the ilium joins the spine at an angle 

 of about 145°. The ischium extends back from the acetabu- 

 lum, two-thirds or three-fourths the length of the ilium, with 

 the tuberosity, e, bending upward : the tuberosity is strength- 

 ened in Deer, Antelopes, and Oxen by a ridge, g. In the 

 male Chevrotains the ischia join the elongated sacrum by ossi- 

 fications of the sacrosciatic ligaments, but in the females these 

 retain their normal extensile texture. The tendons and apo- 

 neuroses of the dorso-spinal muscles become more or less ossified 

 by age, and a thin roof of bone may thus overarch the pelvis, as 

 e.g. in Tragulus jav aniens, Tr. Kanehil^ ho.. The pubics,/*, are 

 slender : they converge to the symphysis at an iliopubic angle of 

 about 135°. The iliopectineal spine is well marked in some 



> CXL. p. 31, fig. 5. - LXXII-. p. 581, no. 3498. 



