UNGULATE CHARACTERS 



we find that the molar teeth, or cheek teeth, as they are 

 sometimes termed, have flattened crowns suitable for 

 triturating vegetable food ; this contrasts with the 

 sharp -pointed molars of many carnivora, which are 

 equally fitted for rending flesh. These molars get 

 during the life of their possessor much worn down, and 

 thus present in course of time a flatter surface than 

 those of carnivorous creatures, a character which the 

 Ungulates share with the nearly equally graminivorous 

 Rodentia. 



A general glance at the various kinds of oxen, sheep, 

 deer, antelopes and camels exhibited at the Zoo will 

 impress, and rightly impress, upon the visitor two other 

 features in which the Ungulates differ from other 

 mammalian groups that inhabit the land. The first is 

 size : Ungulates run large, while Carnivora, Rodents, 

 Insectivores, Marsupials, and Edentates do not. There 

 are small Ungulates, like the Kanchil, and some tiny 

 antelopes not bigger than a small dog ; but, on the 

 whole, the group is one which contains large-sized 

 creatures. Secondly, Ungulates are eminently creatures 

 who use their legs as supports as well as for running 

 purposes. When at rest a lion lies down ; a horse lies 

 down but seldom, and the statement is generally true 

 of the whole series of Ungulates. Sheep and goats 

 climb rocks, and there are one of two kinds of Hyrax 

 (called on this very account Dendrohyrax) which live in 

 trees ; but, as a rule, Ungulates are plain living creatures 

 of considerable swiftness. On the whole, there is in 

 this group of mammals a tendency to a reduction or 

 even a practical loss of the hair and fur. Animals 

 belonging to such diverse groups of Ungulates as the 

 rhinoceros, the elephant, the hippopotamus and the 

 babyrussa, have but a scanty growth of hair ; and even 

 in the deer and antelopes the hairy covering is by no 

 means so dense as is the fur of a cat or a rabbit. The 



50 



