CHAPTER I. 



HOOFED ANIMALS. 



THE. ORDER UNGULATA — THE NUMEROUS FAMILIES — THE RUMINANTS — THEIR PECULIAR STOMACH — 

 HORNS — ANTLERS — EXTINCT SPECIES — THE ORIGINAL HORSE PROTOHIPPUS — GRADUAL DEVEL- 

 OPMENT — THE FAMILY EQU1D/E — THE GENUS EQUUS — THE HORSE — THE TARPAN OR WILD 

 HORSE OF TARTARY — THE MUSTANG OR WILD HORSE OF AMERICA. 



WITH the exception of the Australian region, in which this 

 order of mammalia is almost entirely wanting, the Ungu- 

 lata are well distributed over the world ; they are the 

 dominant vegetable feeders of the great continents, and are of largei 

 size and less activity than the Carnivora. Among them are the most 

 valuable and most domestic animals which man possesses, as the horse 

 and the camel, the ox and the sheep. Among them are the strongest, as 

 well as the most timid, the rhinoceros and the hippopotamus, the giraffe 

 and the tapir, the antelope and the deer. 



The order Ungulata, from the Latin unguis, "a hoof," embraces ten 

 extensive families. Many subdivisions have been proposed ; one method 

 is based on the number of toes, and whether they are odd and even ; by 

 it the families Equidce, Tapiridce, RJiinoccrotidce are classed as Pcrissodactyla 

 or " odd-toed "; the remaining families, as Artiodactyla, or " even-toed." 

 By another classification those animals that " divide the hoof and chew 

 the cud " are taken from the Ungulata and formed into an order 

 Rliminantia. Among these latter are those domesticated animals 

 which are especially adapted for human food. 



With the exception — in some instances — of the Suidce or Swine, all the 

 families in this order are herbivorous, and the molar teeth have hard 

 crowns adapted for grinding vegetable substances. In the Ruminant 

 animals, the typical dentition consists in the absence of incisor and 

 canine teeth in the upper jaw, while the lower jaw holds six incisors and 



