TRAGULIDE 305 
Bunodont genus Homacodon of the Bridger Eocene, mentioned 
among the Cenotherude. 
TRAGULINA. 
Family TRAGULIDA. 
No teeth in premaxille. Upper canines well developed, especi- 
ally in the males; narrow and pointed. Lower canines incisiform. 
No caniniform premolars in either jaw, all the premolars except the 
last in the upper jaw being secant. Molariform teeth in a con- 
tinuous series, consisting of p #, m 3. Odontoid process of axis 
vertebra conical. Fibula complete. Four complete toes on each 
foot. The middle metapodials generally confluent, the outer ones 
(second and fifth) very slender but complete, i.e. extending from 
the carpus or tarsus to the digit. Navicular, cuboid, and ectocunei- 
form bones of tarsus united. Tympanic bull of skull filled with 
cancellar tissue. No frontal appendages. Ruminating, but the 
stomach with only three distinct compartments, the maniplies or 
third cavity of the stomach of the Pecora being rudimentary. 
Placenta diffused. 
This section is represented only by the single family Tragulide, 
containing a few animals of small size, commonly known as 
Chevrotains, intermediate in their structure between the Deer, the 
Camels, and the Pigs. The large size of the canines of the male and 
the absence of horns caused them to be associated formerly with 
foschus, one of the Cervide ; hence they are often spoken of as 
“Pigmy Musk-Deer,” although they have no musk-secreting gland, 
or, except in the above-named trivial external characters, no special 
affinities with the true Musk-Deer. There has scarcely been a more 
troublesome and obdurate error in zoology than in this association 
of animals so really distinct. It has been troublesome, not only in 
preventing a just conception of the relations of existing Artiodac- 
tyles, but also in causing great confusion and hindrance in paleonto- 
logical researches among allied forms; and most obdurate, inasmuch 
as all that has been recently done in advancing our knowledge of 
both groups has not succeeded in eradicating it, not only from 
nearly every one of our zoological text-books, whether British or 
Continental, but even from works of the highest scientific pre- 
tensions. 
The family is now generally divided into two genera. 
Tragulus,) containing the smallest of the existing Ungulates, 
animals having more of the general aspects and habits of some 
Rodents, as the Agoutis, than of the rest of their own order. The 
best-known species are 7. javanicus, T. napu, T. stanleyanus, and 
1 Pallas, Spicilegia Zoologica, vol. xiii. p. 27 ita) 
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