108 COMPARISONS OF STRUCTURE IN ANIMALS, 



In the rhinoceros the upper lip is soft, fleshy, 

 sensitive, and flexible, and is, moreover, capable 

 of a certain degree of protrusion; it is, in fact, 

 used as an instrument of prehension, or for 

 directing food into the mouth. It is much in 

 the same way that the horse uses his uppei- lip, 

 when he feeds himself with hay. Everj'- one 

 must have observed the address with which the 

 horse employs the lips, and how readily the 

 last few grains of oats are picked up from oif 

 the bottom of the manger ; or even from off the 

 palm of the hand. 



In the camel and the llama the upper lip is 

 thick, deeply divided, and extremely flexible; it 

 is, in fact, an organ of prehension as well as of 

 touch. The camel feeds on the dry and thorny 

 shrubs of the desert, on date-leaves, and the 

 branches of the tamarisk. It lays hold of the 

 twigs or tufts with its cleft prehensile lip, 

 turning them into the mouth; and will even 

 pluck off tender shoots and leaves mth this 

 fissured lip as we should with the fingers. 



The giraffe is remarkable for the sensibility 

 and flexible character of the upper-lip, which it 

 can protrude and twist in various directions; 

 it is used in the prehension of food. But the 

 giraffe has an additional and most extraoixlinary 



