ROEBUCK 9 



Artiodactyles, in most cases, walk on the tips of the two large middle toes, while 

 the other two, when present, often scarcely touch the ground. The suborder is 

 divided into four groups, namely, true ruminants ; camels ; chevrotains ; and pigs, 

 peccaries, and hippopotamuses. One of the chief characteristics of true ruminants, 

 to which belong deer, the prongbuck, the giraffe and okapi, and oxen, sheep, and 

 antelopes, is that the upper jaw is entirely without front teeth, while upper tusks, 

 or canines, if they exist at all, are generally small ; in the lower jaw the canines are 

 placed close beside the incisors, and are of similar shape, so that the three pairs of 

 incisors and the pair of canines form a row of four pairs of chisel-like teeth. The 

 cheek-teeth or molars, form a compact series, placed at some distance from the 

 canines. The ruminants owe their name to their peculiar habit of chewing the cud, 

 this habit being correlated with the conformation of the stomach, which is com- 

 posed of four distinct compartments. Of these, the first receives the food tempo- 

 rarily, but does not digest it ; consequently it is brought up to be thoroughly 

 chewed by the cheek-teeth ; this process accomplished, the food descends into the 

 second division of the stomach, and thence successively into the other two, where 

 it undergoes complete digestion. 



Of the four families of ruminants, two only — the deer and the 

 hollow-horned group — include a large number of species. The different 

 members of the deer family differ from most of the hollow-horned group (oxen, 

 sheep, antelopes, etc.) in having no gall-bladder, and, in common with the antlerless 

 species, in possessing, unlike the antelopes and oxen, canine teeth in the upper 

 jaw. Their pointed slender feet are provided with well-developed, small, narrow, 

 outer hoofs, different from those of the giraffe and prongbuck, in which the outer 

 pair is absent. All deer have the tip of the nose bare; many of them have 

 on the outer side of the lower part of the hind-leg a thick gland, conspicuous 

 by its tuft of bristly hairs, and the males of most carry the characteristic antlers. 

 The antlers grow from frontal prominences covered with the hairy skin of 

 the head : these appendages being generally shed yearly, and replaced by new 

 ones, developed on the same pedicles. When the new antlers begin to sprout, they 

 present a round uniform mass of hard calcareous substance, furrowed by numerous 

 arteries, and entirely covered with skin and hair, the so-called : " velvet." As they 

 become larger they mostly fork into several branches, although in some cases they 

 remain simple. When the antlers have attained their full development, the 

 circulation in the arteries ceases, and the velvet, having lost its vitality, dries up, 

 detaches itself, and is finally peeled off by the animal rubbing against a tree. 



Deer, among which the reindeer is the only species in which the female 

 normally has antlers, are widely spread all over the world, except Australasia 

 and that part of Africa lying south of the Sahara. They are generally timid by 

 nature, and live hidden in the forest: and although sometimes found in fertile 

 plains, never haunt the desert. 



The roebuck (Capreolus caprea) is the smallest European deer, and at once 

 distinguishable by its short three-branched horns. The coat of the new-born fawn 

 is reddish brown, marked on both sides with three rows of white spots. At the 

 age of eighteen months the roebuck, whose withers are still somewhat lower 



