236 



A COURSE ON ZOOLOGY. 



in all the species as a means of classification. There are 

 only two digits, enclosed in a divided hoof, and the meta- 

 carpal and metatarsal bones, two each in number, are 



united in single 

 bones, 

 shank. 



FIG. 169. 



called the 

 That which 

 is commonly called 

 the leg is, therefore, 

 only a part of the 

 hand or foot. 



The ruminants 

 have been divided 

 into two groups, 

 those having horns 

 and those having 

 none : among the 

 latter are the camels 

 and llamas. In some 

 of the first group the 



horns are caducous or 

 STAG, HIND, AND FAWN (Cervus elaphus). deciduou8) falling off 



every year, as in the various species of deer ; in others they 

 are persistent ; in the latter case they may be hollow, con- 

 sisting of a horny sheath covering an osseous prolongation 

 of the frontal bone, as in the ox, sheep, and goat, or they 

 may be solid and covered with skin, as in the giraffes. 



Cervidae. The deer family includes the largest ani- 

 mals of our forests. The red-deer of Europe and Western 

 Asia stands over four feet high at the withers, and the 

 male has magnificent antlers. It is reddish brown in 

 summer, and bluish gray in winter. The horns of the 

 deer are purely osseous, the tissue being close and hard ; 

 when they have grown to a certain size, the skin which 



