HOOFED ANIMALS 39 



which peels off as soon as the growth has come to an end. 

 Finally, while the horns of deer are always more or less elabor- 

 ately branched, those of oxen, sheep and antelopes, are never 

 branched, though they may be twisted and curled in various ways. 



It is interesting to note that the only deer which have ever 

 been domesticated and made subservient to man's needs are 

 the reindeer ; and these differ in no way from the wild parent 

 stock. Goats, sheep and oxen, and horses, on the other hand, 

 man has not only completely domesticated, but has also suc- 

 ceeded in bending so far to his own will that he has created 

 several distinct races, which exist nowhere else but in domes- 

 tication. 



Among horses, for example, we have such widely different 

 breeds as the race-horse and the dray-horse : the one the embodi- 

 ment of speed, the other of power. The dray-horse is the giant 

 among horses, while at the other extreme we have the diminu- 

 tive Shetland pony, little bigger than a large dog. Of cattle 

 such breeds may be noted as Highland, shorthorn, Hereford 

 and Alderney, all of which bear horns, and the " polled " races, 

 which are hornless there are no hornless cattle in a wild state. 

 Sheep, too, are represented by many breeds, such as the Norfolk, 

 Leicester and Merino races, and besides these are many others. 

 The woolly coat of the sheep is entirely a product of the breeder, 

 wild sheep having a hairy coat, as have the domesticated races 

 of sheep of tropical countries, which are bred solely for the sake 

 of food. All wild sheep are horned, but many domesticated 

 races are hornless, a result achieved by man's care in breeding. 



Swine. Though the wild boar has long since become extinct 

 in the British Islands, pigs of many breeds, which have de- 

 scended therefrom, are to be met with everywhere. As object 

 lessons for teaching purposes they provide some very valuable 

 material, though those who are engaged in the work of teach- 

 ing Nature Study in large towns must perforce depend for the 

 most part on pictures for their lessons. They can, however, 

 with no great difficulty, obtain portions of skeletons, such as 

 skulls and limb-bones, and bristles, and so on, which will prove 

 exceedingly useful. We would suggest, indeed, that specimens 

 of the skulls and limbs, at any rate, should be procured of as many 



