86 RUMINATING ANIMALS. 



Preferring a solitary country, far from the haunts 

 of men, and freed from interruption, this large fa- 

 mily lives apparently seeking little except sustenance 

 and the continuation of the species. They are ti- 

 morous and watchful, and wage no war on weaker 

 races, and, except during the season of love, their 

 lives with one another are peaceful and unintruding. 

 Their defence is watchfulness and speed, for many of 

 them are the swiftest animals in the world ; and where 

 these properties are less developed, they have strong 

 horns, or large and thick or cutting antlers. The 

 Buffalo of the Cape will often defeat the lion with 

 his powerful front ; and the combat has even proved 

 fatal to the king of beasts. The antlers of the larger 

 stags are formidable barriers, which can seldom be 

 broken in upon, and, when brought to act upon the 

 defensive, and assisted by the cutting strokes of 

 the fore- feet, inflict serious and sometimes fatal 

 wounds. 



The outward appearance of the Ruminantia is in 

 general elegant and pleasing. A few are of clumsy 

 proportions, as the Camel, &c. ; and an appearance 

 of extraordinary disproportion appears in the Gi- 

 raffe ; but the extensive family of the Deer exhibit 

 the height of beauty and symmetry, chaste colour- 

 ing, and mild expression, embodying the whole 

 imagery of the sometimes fanciful descriptions of 

 the poets. The Bovidse or Oxen, again, shew the 

 greatest combination for strength ; but among the 

 wool-bearing animals, the symmetrical parts are con- 



