OF THE HOLLOW-HORNED RUMINANTS. 65 



large herds of Gnoos, Gemsboks, Hartebeests, and Springboks, which swarm in these 

 very localities, are never known to be thus affected ; Nature, in assigning them such 

 dangerous habitats, furnislied them with proper preventives ; and the boors are so well 

 aware of the circumstance, that I am told they are accustomed to grease the hoofs of 

 their cattle, to preserve them from the effects of an unusually dry season. On the 

 other hand, the disease commonly known as the foot-rot in Sheep, and which has been 

 extremely rife during the last autumn, is occasioned by wet swampy pastures ; the water 

 enters the pores, inflames them, and stops their secretion, and the foot, deprived of 

 the natural protection which it receives from its oily covering, swells and suppurates ; 

 the hoofs rot and drop off, and the animal perishes. Each tribe of Ruminants is thus 

 adapted to its own peculiar habitat, which cannot be arbitrarily or capriciously changed, 

 even by the modifying influences of domestication. We see the same influential cha- 

 racters producing their effects upon the every-day habits of our common cattle. The 

 Ox or Coiu, in a hot summer day, will fly to the pool or river, and remain for hours 

 together immersed in the water ; the Sheep and Deer content themselves with the friendly 

 shade of a spreading tree or overhanging bank, and never willingly wet their feet or 

 enter the water, except by force. Many species of the genus Bos, in fact, and more 

 especially the subgenus of Buffalos, are neai-ly as aquatic as the Tapirs ; and the same 

 may be said of the Koodoo and other Calliopes ; the Ellipsiprymnus is even called the 

 Waterbuck by South African travellers, and the Reit or Reedbuck receives its name from 

 the same propensity. All these peculiarities of manners and oeconomy will be more 

 fully developed when I come to speak of the different genera in succession. In the 

 meantime I have said enough to show how the character of the digital pores bears upon 

 the important questions of habit and geographical distribution, and to demonstrate their 

 consequent importance as principles of classification. They have not hitherto, at least 

 as far as I am aware, been noticed by any previous zoologist ; but I confidently hope 

 tliat the employment of this and the other influential characters, which it is the object 

 of this first part of my Monograph to explain, will be found to establish a logical, scien- 

 tific, and natural arrangement among the Ruminantia, instead of the prevailing arbitrary 

 and artificial system. 



From these considerations, it appears that there are only four modifications of organic 

 structure which can be employed with advantage as generic characters in the natural 

 classification of the hollow-horned Ruminants ; that is to say, in a classification which 

 pretends to arrange these animals according to the relations which necessarily subsist 

 between their organization and their habits. These are, — 



1st. The sexual character of the horns, as confined to the males, or common to both 

 sexes. 



VOL. III. PART I. K 



