‘ RUMINANTIA. 183 
erown marked with two double crescents, the convexity of 
which is turned inwards in the upper, and outwards in the 
lower ones. 
The four feet are terminated by two toes and two hoofs 
which face each other by a flat surface presenting the appear- 
ance of a single hoof which has been cleft, whence the name of 
cloven-footed, bifurcated, &c. which is applied to theseanimals. 
Behind the hoof are sometimes found two small spurs, the 
vestiges of lateral toes. The two bones of the metatarsus and 
metacarpus are united into one called the cannon, but in cer- 
tain species there are also vestiges of lateral metatarsal and 
metacarpal bones. 
The term Ruminantia indicates the singular faculty possessed 
by these animals of masticating their food a second time, by 
bringing it back to the mouth after a first deglutition. This 
faculty depends upon the structure of their stomachs, of which 
they always have four, the three first being so disposed that 
the food may enter into either of them, the oesophagus termi- 
nating at the point of communication. 
The first and largest is called the paunch; it receives a 
large quantity of vegetable matters coarsely bruised by a first 
mastication. From this it passes into the second, called the 
honeycomb or bonnet, the parietes of which are laminated 
like a honeycomb. This second stomach, very small and. globu- 
lar, seizes the food, moistens and compresses it into little pel- 
lets, which afterwards successively ascend to the mouth to be 
re-chewed. ‘The animal remains at rest during this opera- | 
tion, which lasts until all the food first taken into the paunch 
has been submitted to it. The aliment thus re-masticated 
descends directly into the third stomach called the leaflet, 
({ feuillet) on account of its parietes being longitudinally Jami- 
~nated or like the leaves of a book; and thence to the 
fourth or the caillette, the sides of which are wrinkled, and 
which is the true organ of digestion, analogous to the simple 
‘stomach of animals in general. In the young Ruminantia, or 
so long as they subsist on the milk of the mother, the caillette 
is the largest of the four. ‘The paunch is only developed by 
receiving increased quantities of grass, which finally give it 
