162 MAMMALIA. 



soutli of Africa. We have seen a female Zebra successively pro- 

 duce with the Horse and the Ass. 



E. quaccha, Gm. BufF. Supp. VII. vii. (The Couagga). Re- 

 sembles the Horse more than the Zebra, but comes from the same 

 country. The hair on the neck and shoulders is brow^l, with whitish 

 transverse stripes; the croup is of a reddish-grey; tail and legs 

 whitish. The name is expressive of its voice, which resembles the 

 barking of a Dog. 



E. montanus, Burchell; the Onagga or Dauw, Fred. Cuv. 

 Mammif. (The Onagga). An African species, smaller than the 

 Ass, but having the beautiful form of the Couagga; its colour is 

 Isabella, with black stripes, alternately wider and narrower, on the 

 head, neck, and body. Those behind slant obliquely forwards; legs 

 and tail white. 



ORDER VIII. 



RUMINANTIA.* 

 This order is perhaps the most natural and best determined of the class, 

 for nearly all the animals which compose it have the appearance of being 

 constructed on the same model, the Camels alone presenting some trifling 

 exceptions to the general characters. 



The first of these characters is the absence of incisors, except in the 

 lower jaw, where they are nearly always eight in number. A callous pad 

 is substituted for them above. Between the incisors and the molars is a 

 vacant space, where, in some genera only, are found one or two canines. 

 The molars, almost always six throughout, have their crown marked with 

 two double crescents, the convexity of which is turned inwards in the 

 upper, and outwards in the lower ones. 



The four feet are terminated by two toes and two hoofs which face each 

 other by a flat surface presenting the appearance of a single hoof which 

 has been cleft, whence the name of cloven-footed, bifurcated, &c., which 

 is applied to these animals. 



Behind the hoof are sometimes found two small spurs, the vestiges of 

 lateral toes. The two bones of the metatarsus and metacarpus are united 

 into one called the cannon (a), but in certain species there are also ves- 

 tiges of lateral metatarsal and metacarpal bones. 



* The Pecora, Lin. 



5®" (a) The cannon bone, it is well known, of the horse, is the shank-bone of the 

 leg, and, when fitted with the pastern, the two constitute a perfect hinge, destined to 

 be a medium of extension and of flexion of the limb, whUst no lateral motion is ad- 

 mitted by them. — Eng. Ed. 



