137 



CHAPTER XX. 



HOOFED-MAMMALS COntilllird — RUMINANTS — CAMELS — OXEX. 



Second Group. — Artiodactyla. — Ruminants. — I shall not occupy much of the reader's time 

 in discussing the classification of the members of this family. Professor Owen has not spoken. 

 But of the various authors who have expressed an opinion upon it, I think I have derived most 

 benefit from some brief remarks by Dr. Leid}% in his "Extinct Fauna of Nebraska,"* and a 

 recent paper on the Moschid-^ and Tkagulid^, by Dr. Alphonse Milne Edwards, in which he 

 has incidentally discussed the affinities of the different groujjs,! I shall not, however, adopt 

 the exact arrangement of any one. 



I shall commence with the Camels for the sake of their points of connexion with the Horse, 

 then take the Oxen ; pass from them to the Sheep and Goats, to the latter of which I unite 

 the Caprine antelopes ; from them to the Antelojjcs proper, commencing with the Bubaline sj)ecics, 

 and so through that family to the Camelopards and Deer, the separation of the former of which 

 from its allies, the Deer and AnteloiDes, is, I think, one of the objectionable points in Alphonso 

 Milne Edwards' arrangement (he placing them between the Camels and the Oxen). I then lead 

 through the Chevrotains to the Anoplotherid.d, which furnish a natural transition to the Swine 

 in the next family. 



On inquiring into the distribution of the Ruminants we find a remarkable difference between 

 their mmibcrs in the Old "World and in the New, as they abound in some parts of the former^ 

 and are almost totally absent in the latter. The same peculiarity is observed in the non- 

 ruminant Artiodactyles (Owen's Omnivora), a circumstance which strengthens the view that 

 they should not be far separated from each other. 



Camels (Camelid.«). (Map 40.) "We should be sadly at a loss to explain the distribution of 

 this famUy were it not for the assistance of the Palfcontologist. The range of the different ex- 

 isting species is so restricted, and separated by such vast distances, that we should never have 

 been able to connect the different liidvs together but for the happy discovery of fossil remains of 

 extinct species. 



One of the existing species, or two, according as the Dromedary is reckoned distinct or not, 

 is confined to the heart of the Old World, in the very centre of the land, and the remainder 

 of the family is shunted ofi" to the extremity of South America and the range of the Andes ; the 

 one restricted by its conformation and constitution to dry and sandy deserts, the other fitted for a 

 temperate if not a cold climate, for lofty elevations, and rejoicing in the drenching mist, and 



* Leidt, JoSKPH. " Extinct FaiHia of Nebraska," 1S53, tologiques sur la famillo des Chevrotains," I'ar Alphonse 

 p. 17. Jlilue-EdwarJs, in " Ann. des Sciences Xaturelles." Scr. 5, 



t " Becherches anatomiques, zoologiques, ct jiala;on- Vol. iii. Paris, 18G4. 



T 



