MAMMALIA PACHYDERMATA DIA GRAM 3. 



45 



The HARES and BABBITS form one family, and everyone knows 

 their habits. They appear at first sight to have only two 

 incisors in the upper jaw like other rodents, but on examining 

 them with care, two other small ones are visible behind the large 

 ones. Kabbits breed amazingly fast when nothing interferes 

 with their multiplication, and can spread over a whole country. 

 The female produces from four to six litters a-year ; there are 

 five or six young ones in each litter, and the young in their turn 

 can produce at the end of six months. It is therefore easy 

 to calculate the rapidity with which they breed. Consequently 

 it has been thought that it would be easy to make a fortune 

 rapidly by breeding rabbits. But this is a great mistake, for, 

 as soon as they are much confined in a small space of country, 

 diseases ensue which destroy great numbers. 



ORDER PACHYDBRMATA. 



The 



ELEPHANT in- 

 habits the East 

 Indies and 

 Africa. It is 

 the largest of 

 the Pachyder- 

 mata and of all 

 land animals. 

 It sometimes 

 reaches a height 

 of 9 or 10 feet. Elephant. 



Its strength is great, and it is very intelligent. In the East Indies it 

 is trained to fight, to hunt, and to carry very heavy burdens, which 

 it lifts itself with its trunk, and arranges as is most convenient to it.' 



