RUMINATING ANIMALS*. 85 



wool. They inhabit the known world, with the ex- 

 ception of Australia." 



In the form of the Ruminantia, we find a structure 

 as admirably fitted for their wants as in the groups 

 we have already surveyed. In the Quadrumana and 

 Carnivora, the fore extremities present marked ar- 

 rangements for particular purposes : in the one, a 

 power of prehension ; in the other, that of wielding 

 an immense force by a blow; and the chest and neck 

 in these are particularly powerful, as connected with 

 the necessary organization of their extremities. The 

 one is omnivorous, and generally procures its food 

 by search or stratagem ; the other is carnivorous, and 

 always exerts its great strength and formidable wea- 

 pons for the seizure of its sustenance. The rumi- 

 nating animals, on the contrary, subsist entirely on 

 the produce of the vegetable world. * They inha- 

 bit the forsaken plains, or vast forests, and even the 

 more arid deserts of the tropics : they gain their 

 livelihood entirely on the herbage and foliage which 

 Nature has generally in those situations so bountifully 

 and variously supplied ; and where it is more scanty 

 or limited, they possess a lightness of form, and swift- 

 ness, which carries the herd in a few hours from the 

 exhausted pasture to one fresher and more abundant. 



* In Persia, a great proportion of the food of the small 

 humped cows (zebu) and sheep is dried fish, a little salted. 

 The cattle become very fond of this, mixed with pounded 

 date stones, and the natives assert that both the quantity 

 and quality of the milk is improved Fraser's Travels, 

 quoted from Jameson's Journal. 



