THE HOLLOW HORNED RUMINANTS 747 



former area belonging to groups quite unknown in the latter. Although repre- 

 sented in the Arctic regions only by the reindeer and the musk ox, Ungulates are 

 found alike in the coldest and the hottest regions of the globe. The maximum 

 number of peculiar forms, as well as those of greatest corporeal bulk, are, however, 

 inhabitants of the tropical and subtropical regions ; and it is also in the warmer 

 regions that the greatest number of species occur. As regards the number of indi- 

 viduals of particular species, many Ungulates far exceed any other of the larger 

 Mammals; this being especially the case with the bisons, that but a few years ago 

 roamed in countless thousands over the prairies of North America, and with the 

 myriad hosts of springboks in the South- African veldt. Through the advance of 

 civilization and the incessant persecution of both the sportsman and the trader, 

 these wonderful instances of the profusion of animal life have, however, been swept 

 away forever. 



Not only are the Ungulates widely distributed in longitude and latitude, but 

 they are also found at all elevations suitable for the existence of animal life ; some 

 of the wild sheep of the Himalayas ranging to elevations of fully twenty thousand 

 feet above the level of the sea. In time the order is an ancient one, being repre- 

 sented in the earliest stages of the Eocene division of the Tertiary period, although 

 the species were mostly small, and in all cases widely different from any now 

 living. 



THE HOLLOW- HORNED RUMINANTS 

 Family 



Unfortunately we have no concise English term to designate collectively the ani- 

 mals commonly known as oxen, sheep, goats, and antelopes, and we are hence com- 

 pelled to allude to them by the periphrasis of the hollow-horned Ruminants, unless 

 we prefer to call them by their scientific title, Bovida. This is the more to be re- 

 gretted, since the term hollow-horned Ruminants will likewise include the Ameri- 

 can prongbuck, which is the representative of a family by itself. 



Taking, then, the term hollow-horned Ruminants, for want of a better, to des- 

 ignate the animals mentioned above, we have in this family our first representative 

 of the Ungulate order. But before entering into the consideration of the especial 

 characteristics of this family, it is necessary to point out those distinctive of the 

 great group of even-toed Ungulates, under which title are included not only the 

 hollow-horned Ruminants, but likewise deer, camels, swine, and many other living 

 and extinct types. 



It has been already mentioned that the even-toed Ungulates (or 



. Artiodactyles, as they are technically termed), are distinguished by 



the third and fourth toes being almost equally developed, and arranged 



symmetrically on either side of a vertical line drawn between them ; this line being 



continued upward to the wrist or ankle, and the metacarpal and metatarsal bones 



similarly arranged in respect to it. As a consequence of this it results that in the 



typical members of the group the hoofs are of the so-called "cloven" type. This 



characteristic is alone sufficient to distinguish all the members of the group; but 



