; 



172 CHAKAGTERS OF EVEN-TOED HOOFED BEASTS. 



" artioclactyle," or even-toed beasts ; the synonym " rumi- 

 nant," indicative of the same great family, is deduced from 

 the characteristic complexity of their act of digestion. 

 No food is more remote or distinct from flesh than grass. 

 / Extremities enveloped in hoofs are incapacitated from 

 ' seizing and retaining a living prey, hence all hoofed 

 mammals are necessarily herbivorous: hence the com- 

 plexity of their grinding teeth, the concomitant strength 

 of their grinding muscles, and weakness of the biting 

 muscles ; the length of the neck, to enable the head to 

 reach the verdant earth, and the length and slenderness 

 of the jaws. The absence of a clavicle, and of any power 

 of rotating the bones of fore-leg and fore-foot, are also con- 

 stant characteristics of both great divisions of the Ungu lata 

 or hoofed quadrupeds. 



The ox, the hog, and the hippopotamus are examples 

 of even-toed hoofed quadrupeds. In the ox, besides the 

 two large and normally developed hoofs, two small sup- 

 plementary hoofs dangle behind, in each foot; in the hog 

 these are brought down to the level of the midpair, but 

 are smaller; in the hippopotamus the four digits and hoofs 

 are subequal on each foot. From this type of extremity 

 to that of the giraffe, or camel, where the digits are abso- 

 lutely restricted to two on each foot, there is a close series 

 of gradational shortcomings affecting the outer and the 

 inner toes, until they wholly disappear. The giraffe (Fig. 

 80) is a ruminant dwelling in climes where herbage dis- 

 appears from the parched soil soon after the rainy season 

 has terminated, and where sustenance for a herbivore of 

 its bulk could hardly be afforded, except by trees : it is 

 therefore modified to browse on the tender branches, and 

 chiefly of the light and lofty acacias. Its trunk is accord- 

 ingly short, and raised high upon long and slender limbs, 



