QUADRUPEDS. 



FIG. 425. QUAGGA. 



The Onager (Asi)ms inontanus], or Mountain Horse, is smaller than the ass, 

 and is marked on the head, neck, and trunk, by alternately wide and narrow black 

 stripes, upon an isabella or bay ground. His legs and tail are white. 



ORDER RUMINANTIA.* 



The grand character given in the inspired volume whereby to 

 distinguish those Quadrupeds which are specially adapted for 

 human food, is that " they divide the hoof and chew the cud," a 

 description so concise, and at the same time so comprehensive, 

 that modern science has not been able to improve it. It em- 

 braces, in fact, the extensive Order of Ruminants, which next 

 offers itself for our notice. 



The animals belonging to this Order are recognizable from the 

 circumstance that they all chew the cud. Secondly, they have 

 incisor teeth only in the lower jaw, generally eight in number. 

 Thirdly, they have on each foot two toes, enveloped in hoofs 

 which face each other by a flat side, so that they have the ap- 

 pearance of a single hoof split in two or cloven. 



The Ruminantia are large animals, without much intelligence, 

 but which, nevertheless, render immense service to man. They 

 furnish him with nearly all the meat that he eats ; their milk 

 supplies excellent food ; they possess a fat, named suet, which is 



* Ruminate, to chew the cud. 



