270 



Descriptive Zoology. 



compartments. When the food is cropped it is swallowed 

 without chewing. It passes into the large paunch, or first 

 stomach ; when the ruminant lies down to rest, the soaked 

 fodder is passed into the small second stomach, the honey- 

 comb or reticulum, where it is formed into distinct masses 

 and returned to the mouth for thorough mastication. It 

 again goes down the gullet, this time to the third stomach, 

 the psalterium, or manyplies, whence it enters the true 

 stomach, or fourth stomach, sometimes called the rennet. 



The intestine is very long, be- 

 tween twenty and thirty times 

 the length of the body. The 

 ruminants need a large quantity 

 of food, hence it is easy to see 

 how it is of advantage to them 

 to be able to gather their food 

 quickly, retire to a place of con- 

 cealment, and digest it at their 

 leisure, as many of them are 

 comparatively defenseless. The 

 males of all the ruminants, except 

 the camels, have horns, and in 

 many species the females also 

 possess them, though usually much smaller than those of the 

 male. 



The Hollow-horned Ruminants. In cattle, sheep, goats, 

 and antelopes, the horn consists of a bony core, covered 

 with a layer of horn, which is not shed except in the case 

 of the pronghorn antelope of our Western plains. 



Sheep. The rams have large, curved horns, which they 

 use for butting when fighting. Our native sheep is the 

 Rocky Mountain, or bighorn sheep, so named from its 

 immense horns. These, in the old rams, become very much 



FIG. 158. t>IAGRAM OF THE 



STOMACH OF A RUMINANT. 



Showing the course of the food. 



From Kingsley's Comparative 



Zoology. 



