76 RUMINANTS AND THEIR DISTRIBUTION. 



that they yielded the only mammalian food permitted to 

 the Hebrew, and this pre-eminence as a source of food has 

 scarcely decreased to the present day. They are, moreover, 



FIG. 25. Skeleton of the Extinct Irish Deer a typical Ruminant. 



now the dominant type of larger mammals, as witness the 

 herds of bison which lately roamed over the American 



