OF THE CLASS MAMMALIA. 269 



fields of rice or millet, which they rapidly consume. Their 

 inarch is so impetuous that they overthrow every obstacle, 

 especially when alarmed. Their character is ferocious. 



The pig has also four toes on all the feet, but two are 

 large and two shorter. The incisive teeth vary in number, and 

 the tusks protrude from the mouth, curling upwards. The 

 muzzle terminates in a truncated snout, adapted for digging 

 up roots, on which they live, in troops, in the forests ; but 

 they show no repugnance to animal food. 



The rhinoceros (Fig. 176) is a very large* animal, with 

 short thick body and short limbs, remarkable for the great 

 thickness of its hide, and for the horn or horns it carries 

 on the nose. The horns are solid, composed of matted 

 hairs, and supported on strong nasal bones, arched and thick ; 

 but these horns have no osseous core, and they move with the 

 integuments. It inhabits the hottest parts of Asia and 

 Africa, and is generally found in the elephant countries. 

 It is ferocious and untarneable, and is fond of wallowing in 

 miry places, like the pig.* 



The genus horse, comprising the horse, properly so called, 

 the ass, zebra, and several other species, is characterized by 

 the conformation of the feet, single toed, and covered with a 

 hoof ; by six incisives in either jaw, hollowed when young, 

 which hollow disappears with age ; by six molars on either 

 side of each jaw, and by a space between the small canine 

 teeth found in the male and the molars, which receives the 

 bit. These canine teeth are small, and peculiar to the male. 

 The eyes of the horse are prominent, his hearing good, upper 

 lip so large as to be used as an instrument of prehension ; 

 nostrils not much dilated ; the body is covered all over with 

 hair, and the neck provided with a mane. The tail is of 

 moderate length, but has long hairs, especially hi the domes- 

 tic horse. Though strictly herbivorous, their stomach is 

 simple, and of moderate size. His mode of life in a domestic 

 state is so well known as to require no description. 



The horse, properly so called, is distinguished from the 

 other species by the uniform colour of the coat ; by the tail, 

 furnished with hairs from its basis ; by his height and more 

 elegant form. He exists nowhere now in a wild state, for the 

 so-called wild horses of America are merely the domestic 



* The double-horned rhinoceros is peculiar to Africa, and was known to 

 the Romans alter all traces of it were lost to the civilized world, and its very 

 existence doubted by naturalists : it was rediscovered but a few years ago 

 by Sparrman, in Southern Africa. R. K. 



