MAMMALIA. 



171 



actions of the trunk, while the others are branches of 

 the filth pair, or nerves which supply the organs of 

 sensation. 



The next organs of prehension, or seizing the food, 

 to which we shall allude, are the soft parts of the 

 mouth, of which we need not add that the chief are 

 the lips and tongue. In carnivorous animals, and, 

 generally speaking, in animals which seize their prey 

 with teeth, there is very little motion in the soft parts 

 of the mouth ; and in some the most powerful action 

 of the lips is that which draws them away from the 

 teeth, in order to expose these more completely to 

 the work which they have to perform, of which we 

 have a familiar instance in the snarling of a dog. In 

 grazing animals, on the other hand, both lips and 

 tongue are always more or less prehensile. In those 

 pachydermatous animals, which do not root up the 

 earth like the hog tribe, there is always a good deal 

 of prehensile motion in the lips, especially the upper 

 one. The rhinoceros, the tapir, and even the hippo- 

 potamus afford examples of this prehensile lip, more 

 or less conspicuous in the different genera, but in no 

 case amounting to an independent prehensile instru- 

 ment like the trunk of the elephant; the most efficient 

 of them are merely auxiliary to the mouth in gathering 

 in the vegetable matter which is cut from the surface 

 of the ground by means of the teeth, or in bringing 

 more elevated vegetation downward, so that these 

 instruments can divide it. There is less of this action 

 of the lip in the rhinoceros than in any other animal 

 of the order ; and the rhinoceros requires it less, 

 inasmuch as its chief food is torn by the very power- 

 ful teeth with which the jaws of the animal are 

 furnished. 



The ruminant animals have also some prehensile 

 action in the lip, and they have more in the tongue 

 than any of the pachydermata. Perhaps the most 

 remarkable instance is that of the giraffe, which, 

 while it has the lips capable of seizing and conveying 

 into the mouth the leaves, twigs, and other vegetable 

 substances upon which it feeds, has the tongue a 

 directly prehensile instrument, with which it can seize 

 a branch of a tree and bring it down till the leaves 

 are within reach of the lips. 



There are some adaptations to locality in these 

 parts of animals which are not unworthy of attention; 

 and they are the more worthy of this attention, 

 inasmuch as the larger mammalia, which feed upon 

 vegetable matter, are the grand indexes to the vege- 

 tation of a country, and through that to its general 

 physical character, as respects its value for human 

 cultivation or the reverse. One of the most valuable 

 of these indications is, that the country furnishes a 

 supply of food for these larger herbivorous mam- 

 malia, which are the most profitable, on account 

 of their milk, their labour, and the value of all the 

 parts of their structure ; and also from the great 

 return which such animals make to the soil on 

 which they feed. Hogs mangle the surface, and 

 the rodent animals, even when they do not bur- 

 row, spoil the vegetation. It is therefore of use to 

 attend to the modes of feeding. If the animal subsists 

 chiefly by browsing the short herbage of upland 

 downs, and other places of a similar description, there 

 is little prehensile motion either in the lips or the 

 tongue ; and the sheep and goat may be regarded as 

 examples of this kind. If again the animal grazes the 

 taller vegetation of meadows and other fertile places, 

 the tongue has more prehensile action, and it sweeps 



round to gather the herbage as it is divided by the 

 teeth. The whole of the ox tribe furnish examples 

 of this mode of action. If again the animal has, 

 either habitually or seasonally, to gather the dried 

 grass from the surface of the ground, the lips have 

 more prehensile motion, as we find exemplified in the 

 horse and the ass. Yet again, if the animal is habitu- 

 ally or seasonally reduced to browse trees, in conse- 

 quence of the disappearance of surface vegetation 

 from its pasture, it has the lips and also the tongue 

 still more prehensile, as we find exemplified in the 

 camel, and still more decidedly in the giraffe. 



There is not only this gradual adaptation in these 

 grazing animals to the peculiar nature of their diffe- 

 rent localities ; but the whole organisation of the 

 animal corresponds with this. The lengthened neck 

 and comparatively small head of the camel and the 

 giraffe, and also the free motion of their fore leg?, 

 and the extent to which they can stretch these from 

 each other when circumstances render it necessary, 

 all tend to enable the animals more conveniently to 

 find their food, whether they are obliged to seek for 

 it above or below the ordinary plane of the body. 



We shall now take leave of those parts of the 

 head of the mammalia which, with the exception 

 of the teeth, are the principal organs of that part 

 of the body used in seizing food. There are no 

 doubt various other animals which have the tongue 

 extensible a considerable way beyond the ribs, 

 and capable of some prehensile action. This is 

 the case with the bear, which is in the habit of 

 reaching the sweet juices of vegetables in the tubes 

 which contain them, after the animal has divided a 

 portion with its teeth, in order to procure their 

 admission, and which also by the same means get at 

 honey in the holes of old trees, which they are in- 

 capable of reaching directly with the mouth. The 

 ant-eaters have also this faculty to a considerable 

 extent ; but as their object is not to lick up substances 

 with the tongue, but to possess themselves of insects 

 and their larvae, their tongues are furnished with a 

 viscid secretion to which the insects adhere, as they 

 do to a similar substance on the tongues of birds and 

 reptiles which, like the mammalia in question, feed 

 upon insects. 



There is another portion of the organisation of the 

 ant-eater, which aids the prehensile tongue in the 

 capture of the animal's insect-food ; and without this 

 the power of the tongue could not be effectually 

 called into operation. That to which we allude is 

 the fore-paw of the animal ; and, in order that it may 

 be better understood, we have given a bird's-eye view 

 of the anterior part of the animal, together with the 

 skeleton of the fore paw, which will be found at 

 page 163. 



It will be borne in mind that this animal is entirely 

 toothless, incapable of biting, or of offering any 

 violence to an animal so large as a mouse; yet one 

 of the species at least is an animal of considerable 

 size, being more than four feet long in the body, and 

 two feet and a half in the tail ; but it is a very slow 

 and inefficient walker. From its large size, it must 

 require a considerable quantity of food ; and as that 

 food consists of very small insects, the finding of it 

 must be attended with no inconsiderable degree of 

 labour. Now, whatever may be the kind or quantity 

 of food necessary for any animal, the organisation of 

 the animal is in every case the best adapted for find- 

 ing that food in all the three parts, of getting at the 



