50 



MAMMALIA RUMINANTIA DIAGRAM 3. 



praised. The camel can fast when he has not enough, but he 

 eats gluttonously when food is abundant. It also frequently 

 happens that he dies of hunger during the journey, and the 

 caravan routes are strewn with his bones. The camel and 

 dromedary supply the inhabitants of the East with milk, and 

 wool, which is spun into clothes. 



There is a much smaller ruminant than the camel, which is 

 used for similar purposes in America. It inhabits the mountains 

 of the Andes and the Cordilleras, and is used for the transport of 

 merchandise. It has also an abundant fleece, which has lately 

 been brought into use in Europe, under the name of Alpaca. 



THE GIRAFFE. The giraffe is the 

 largest of all ruminants, and its very 

 long neck is terminated by a compar- 

 atively small head. The neck of the 

 giraffe, in spite of its length, is formed 

 of only seven vertebra?, which is the 

 same number as in man, and in 

 nearly all mammals, whether their 

 neck is as short as in the elephant, or 

 as long as in the giraffe. This 

 animal can only browse on the leaves 

 of trees of a considerable height, and 

 when it wishes to take an3 r thing from 

 Giraffe. the ground with its lips, it is quite a 



labour, and it moves its fore legs gradually apart one after the 

 other, like some one performing a gymnastic feat, to enable its 

 snout to touch the ground. 



THE DEER are distinguished from all other ruminants by the 

 antlers, which the male alone in most cases bears on his head. 

 These antlers, in spite of their large size, are shed every year, 

 and grow again, larger in proportion to the age of the animal. 

 But they are not so hard as they afterwards become, when 

 they grow. When the stag has just lost his horns, to- 

 wards the end of winter, they leave two scars on the 



