INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 



416 



the continent of Australia must be exceptecl; among the 

 peculiar Fauna of that country, as well as in Madagascar, 



Fig 314. REIN-DEER.* 



New Guinea, and the greater number of the South Sea 

 Islands, no species of this order 

 has yet been discovered. 



Whether the foot is cloven as 

 in the Deer (Fig. 315), and other 

 animals of the present order, or 

 encased in a solid hoof as in 

 the Horse (Fig. 316), it is equally 

 unfitted to assist in the capture 

 of living prey, and the food con- 

 sequently consists of vegetables. 

 The molar teeth, as might be 

 expected, are so formed as to 

 be peculiarly efficient instruments 

 for the mastication of such sub- 

 stances; and we learn from 

 Fig. 315. Fig. 316. Professor Owen, that "not only 



orders and genera, but even species, are characterised by 



* While these sheets were passing through the press, remains of the Rein-deei 

 were discovered near Dublin, associated with those of the Great Irish Deer. The; 

 had previously been found both in Devon and Norfolk ; there can therefore be n 

 doubt that the Rein-deer was at one time an inhabitant of these countries. Owen's 

 Fossil Mammalia. Oldham in Journal of Geological Society of Dublin, Nov. 1847. 



