64 MAMMALIA OF THE STEPPES. 



the neck of the ill-bred animal, as if he had received the most natter- 

 ing compliment. A good understanding being thus strangely re- 

 established, they went on their way peaceably, without giving another 

 thought to what had taken place." 



CHAPTER VII. 



THE ANIMAL LIFE OF THE STEPPES : WILD RUMINATING ANIMALS 



RODENTS CARNIVORA BIRDS. 



BESIDES those species of which we have just spoken, and which man 

 has subjugated to his service, the Steppes nourish a host of other 

 animals which seem for ever destined to a savage life. Some are 

 spread through the entire zone of the Steppes, and include represen- 

 tatives of the genera or species belonging to the temperate latitudes 

 of Europe. But most of them are circumscribed in more or less 

 limited habitats, out of which they would not meet with the condi- 

 tions of climate or provision that are essential to their existence. 



The mammalia which are found in the plains of Eastern Europe 

 and Central Asia .belong principally to the orders of Ruminants,* 

 Rodents, and Carnaria. 



Cuvier divides the ruminants into two great sections : one com- 

 prising the ruminants without horns (genera, camel, lama, and chev- 

 rotairi); and the other, those ^^)^th horns. The latter he again divides 

 into ruminants with decaying or wooden horns (these are the cervidce 

 of the new nomenclature), ruminants with membraneous horns (as the 

 giraffes), and ruminants with hollow horns (oxen, goats, antelopes, 

 sheep). 



The section of Ruminants without horns is represented in the 

 Steppes by the camel. Of the three groups of horned ruminants, one 



* Class I., Mammalia: Order III., Carnaria; Order V., Rodentia ; Order IX., Kurninantia. 



