268 BRITISH MAMMALS 



construction of the stomach in the Odd-toed Ungulates is much 

 more simple than that of the Even-toed Ungulates, many of 

 which are ruminating mammals. On the other hand, there is 

 a strong outward similarity between some of the members of 

 both groups, though this, no doubt, is due to parallelism. In 

 both Odd-toed and Even-toed Ungulates the teats are usually 

 reduced to four, or even two, and are confined to the regions 

 between the thighs. The pigs (a very primitive form of Artio- 

 dactyle) are exceptions to this rule, as in them the mammas are 

 as many as eight or ten in number, and are placed along the 

 belly from the thighs to the vicinity of the thorax. 



The Odd-toed Ungulates at the present day are reduced to 

 three groups only, each of which represents a distinct family — the 

 Tapirs (in South America and Eastern Asia), the Rhinoceroses 

 (in Africa and Asia), and the Horses, which in a really wild state 

 are now only found in the Old World, though originally they 

 were equally abundant in North and South America. 



Family: RHINOCEROTID.^. RHINOCEROSES 

 An early form of tapir {Taprus priscus)^ scarcely distinguish- 

 able from the existing tapir of South-east Asia, lived in England 

 as late as the end of the Pliocene Epoch. Its remains have been 

 discovered in East Anglia, which exhibits so strong a connection 

 with France and Germany in its ancient fauna, as almost to 

 lead us to suppose that during a great part of the Pliocene it 

 was connected with the European Continent, and separated from 

 a good deal of the rest of England by a strait of the North Sea, 

 which flowed south from what is now the Wash. But as it is 

 very doubtful whether man had already entered Britain whilst 

 this tapir survived, I shall not attempt to describe it as a 

 recent British mammal. I therefore proceed to the considera- 

 tion of the Rhinoceros family, which was strongly represented 

 in England during the Pleistocene, and almost remained here 

 down to the invasion of these lands by that superior type of 

 humanity which is associated with " Neolithic," or improved 

 stone implements. 



