Oil Aiumala depicted un Antique Monuinciitn. 71 



IV. SOLIDUNGULA: 



Two species of Solidungula are figured upon the mosaic. 

 The first represents the common horse {Equus Caballus, Linn.) ; 

 whilst the second, under which is written the word Avy|, seems 

 to be a race which is lost or destroyed. The orthography of 

 the name proves that the antique is to be dated in the first ages 

 of the empire. Previous to this epoch it would have been writ- 

 ten At/y|. The animal to which this name is erroneously at- 

 tached appears to be a species of horse, between the dzhiggtai 

 and the quagga. It has nothing in common with the lynx of 

 the ancients, which was the wolf-lynx, as it has been well re- 

 marked by Perrault.* In fact, the slightest examination suf- 

 fices to show that the animal named lynx in the mosaic has so- 

 lid feet, or but a single hoof; with the body, head and tail pecu- 

 liar to the horse. In conformity with these characters, this spe- 

 cimen then, is neither the dzhiggtai nor the quagga, and still 

 less the ass or the zebra. According to this, then, it would con- 

 stitute a species wh.ich is now lost ; if this race has really exist- 

 ed with the form and the proportions which are bestowed on it 

 in the antique. On this point we may again remark, that this 

 is the more probable, since the figures of the mosaic are generally 

 so well delineated as to lead us to conclude that they have been 

 copied from nature. 



V. RUMINANTIA. 



Four species of the Ruminantia are found on the pavement 

 of the Temple of Fortune ; and they all belong to the Rumi- 

 nantia with horns. The first is the camelopard, distinguished 

 on the mosaic by the word y^inXoTrx^xXi. According to Belon, 

 Aldrovande, and Gesner, this animal received its name on ac- 

 count of its form and its skin ; because that, with the head and 

 horns of a stag, it had the neck of a camel, and a skin spotted 

 like a leopard. Its tail was small, its feet very unequally forked, 

 and its fore feet much longer than its hind ones. Its horns, 

 which were at the upper part of its forehead, were not above 



• Memoirs de I'Acad. des Sciences depuis 1U66 jusqu'a 1099, lorn. i. prem. 

 part. p. VA\. 



