138 ANDREW JACKSON HOWE. 



mammals. Frogs have five toes behind, and four in 

 front, with a knob on the carpus to represent the fifth. 

 The alligator has five digits in front, and four be- 

 hind, with a mark for the fifth. Animals with a 

 lizard-like conformation have from three to five toes ; 

 and in some lacertian swimmers the shoulder and 

 pelvic girdles are rudimentary all the way through, 

 the legs being too feeble and undeveloped to sustain 

 the weight of the body. 



Herbivorous animals have mostly, for each foot, 

 two strong toes that come to the ground, and two 

 rudimentary digits which are called "dew claws," and 

 have no functional importance. The latter bear di- 

 minutive hoofs, embrace phalanges, and have meta- 

 carpal and metatarsal splint bones. The fifth digit in 

 these cud-chewers, or ruminants, is rarely or barely 

 represented by a mark or sign, hence such animals are 

 denominated artiodactyl, or even-toed. Most of them 

 present no upper incisor teeth ; and they grind their 

 food imperfectly while it is being cropped and swal- 

 lowed. Their intestinal canal is long and complicated, 

 for the purpose of extracting nutriment from herbage 

 not always rich in nutritious supplies. 



Man possesses a distinct radius and ulna, and a 

 tibia and fibula ; and so do most of the perissodactyl 

 or odd-toed animals those having one, three, or five 

 digits. The pig has upper and lower incisor teeth, 

 ankylosed radius and ulna, and a distinct tibia and 

 fibula. Its toes are like those of ruminants, two 

 functional and two rudimental on each foot. 



The sheep, the goat, the ox, the buffalo, the 

 moose, the deer, and the antelope, have an ulna with 

 a well developed olecranon process, but the lower ex- 

 tremity blends with the radius ; the fibula of these 



