CHAPTER XXIV 

 THE UNGULATES continued 



CHEVROTAINS AND CAMELS 

 Families TRAGULIDsE and 



WITH the Deer family we took leave of the last of the two Ruminants the Pecora 

 of the scientific zoologist and we now come to two smaller groups of Ungulates, 

 which, although Ruminants in the general sense of that term, yet differ so widely 

 from the Pecora, and also from one another, that they are each regarded as consti- 

 tuting sections of equal value with the latter. These two groups are, firstly, the 

 small deer-like animals commonly known as chevrotains, and secondly, the camels; 

 the latter term including not only the true camels of the Old World, but likewise 

 the South- American llamas. 



Both these groups agree with the true Ruminants in having crescent-like (selen- 

 odont) molar teeth; but whereas the chevrotains are probably descended from the 

 same ancestral stock as that which gave rise to the deer, it appears that the camels 

 have originated from a totally different stock, and have thus acquired their crescent- 

 like teeth quite independently of the true Ruminants. In addition to forming two 

 distinct families, these two groups have also received names of a superior grade, 

 thus bringing them on to a platform equivalent to that occupied by the Pecora. 

 For the chevrotains the term Tragulina is adopted, while that of Tylopoda is taken 

 for the camels. 



THE CHEVROTAINS 

 Family Tragulida 



The elegant little creatures known as chevrotains, or mouse-deer, are so like 

 small antlerless deer in general outward appearance, that they are commonly re- 

 garded as nearly allied to the musk deer, near which they were indeed long placed 

 by zoologists. In zoology, as in many other things, outward appearance is, how- 

 ever, very often deceptive; and when the chevrotains are examined anatomically 

 they are found to depart very widely from the Deer family. 



Chevrotains agree with the true Ruminants in the absence of any, incisor teeth 

 in the upper jaw; and they resemble the musk deer in the presence of upper tusks, 

 or canine teeth, which in the males attain a considerable length, and project below 

 the mouth. They likewise agree with the true Ruminants in that the canine teeth 



of the lower jaw resemble the incisors to the outermost pair of which they are ap- 

 (986) 



