THE GAIT OF LAND ANIMALS. 
By BR. LypDEKKeEr. 
HE existence in our fanguage of such terms as “ walk,’ “run,” “trot,” “canter,” 
“gallop,” “hop,” etc., implies that characteristic differences in the gait or pace of 
mammals and other land animals have long been recognised. The application of several 
of these terms partakes, however, of that mdefiniteness so noticeable in popular language 
generally. For example, while “hop,” ‘trot,’ “canter,” and “gallop” have each a definite 
and restricted meaning, the terms “walk” and “run” are applied much more indiscrimi- 
nately. Thus we call the slower type of locomotion in the great majority of mammals a 
“walk,” while the term “run” may be employed to designate the more rapid movements 
of these animals in all cases, save where they hop or leap. The faster motions of a 
horse or a deer are, however, properly denoted by the terms “trot,” “canter,” and 
“gallop”; and these words are not rightly applicable to the gait of bipeds. On the 
whole, it seems probable that the terms “walk” and “run” properly refer to the gait 
of man and such other bipeds as do not hop, but that they are also used in a wider 
or general sense for the locomotive movements of the great majority of mammals; and 
that they are always employed in this wider sense when no special name exists for the 
movements of any particular kind of animal. or instance, we may say in a general 
way that a horse walks or runs; but if we desire to be more definite, we say that 
it either walks, trots, canters, or gallops. On the other hand, in the case of a mouse 
(as with man), we can only say that it either walks or runs. 
Although the aforesaid terms imply, as we have seen, the recognition of certain 
differences in the mode or rapidity of movements in certain animals, yet we have no 
terms to designate certain other differences in animal locomotion. There are no titles, 
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