THE AMERICAN BISON 19^ 



Thus the two great groups of hoofed beasts differ as 

 follows : 



Odd-toed. Even -toed. 



Functional toes of hind foot, Even. 



odd. 



A simple stomach. A complex stomach. 



A complex crecum. A simple caecum. 



A third trochanter to thigh Only two trochanters. 



bone. 



A canal in the wing-wedge bone. No such canal. 



More than nineteen back and Nineteen back and trunk 



trunk bones. bones. 



Of the two before-mentioned exceptional animals which 

 have been supposed to l)e allied to the ungulates, the 

 elephant exhibits all the above given characters of the 

 odd-toed groups save that its thigh bone has but two 

 trochanters. The toes of its hind foot are odd numbered, 

 for there are five of them. Any one observing an 

 elephant when it walks, and noticing the flat sole it 

 applies to the ground, might well suppose it to be 

 plantigrade, and, therefore, quite unlike any other ungu- 

 late. But so to think would be a mistake, for it no more 

 applies the sole of its foot to the g:round than does a 

 smart lady whose shoe is pro\dded with a fashion- 

 able high heel. Beneath the bones of the foot is a great 

 pad, which increases in thickness backward, and thus 

 raises both the heel and the wrist from the ground so 

 much that the elephant is really digitigrade. Neverth-e- 

 less, the elevation is but slight and enormously less than 

 in any cattle. As a consequence of this latter fact the 

 proportions of the bones of its limbs are more human, 

 and the thigh bone especially is, roughly speaking, so like 

 man's that the finding of such remains might well have 

 given rise to tales about giants. 



The hyrax, or coney of Scripture, is a small, short- 



