A YOUNG NATURALIST. 1 07 



Its lower jaw is provided with eight incisors, whilst the upper 

 jaw has nothing hut a cushion or gum." 



" That 's right enough," said Lucien, opening the fawn's 

 mouth. 



" In all ruminants, the food when swallowed passes into the 

 first stomach ; it is then brought up to be chewed again ; this is 

 called ' chewing the cud.' You must often have seen a cow, or 

 a sheep, sitting quiet in the sun, and constantly chewing." 



" Yes,'' replied Lucien, " and I'Encuerado always told me that 

 they had eaten some bitter herb." 



" His explanation is about as correct as that given by the 

 Mexicans, who say that an animal which chews the cud is read- 

 ing the newspaper. Another characteristic of these animals is, 

 that their feet are cloven." 



" And they have horns ! " cried Lucien. 



" Not all of them ; for instance, the camel, llama, and musk 

 deer, are exceptions." 



It remained for us to decide how our fawn should be cooked. 

 After a discussion on the subject, we left the point entirely to 

 I'Encuerado, and I made my way down to the bottom of the 

 ravine. Upon lifting up some stones and pieces of bark, I dis- 

 covered several species of the Carabus family. Lucien caught on 

 a shrub some insects of a very peculiar shape ; at the first glance, 

 Sumichrast recognised them as tettigmes. 



" These insects belong to the Eermptera family," said he, 

 " therefore they are allied to the bug and the grasshopper ; these 

 insects have neither mandibles * nor jaws ; their mouth is a sort 

 of beak, formed of a jointed tube extending along the breast, 

 which you can see very plainly. This order is a very numerous 

 one, and the two species you have just found are peculiar to 

 Mexico." 



" Here is one like a fowl, and another like a canoe." 



" You are quite right, and you will meet with others which are 

 still more singular looking." 



The appearance of these little creatures pleased Lucien very 



* A very hard substance placed immediately under the upper lip, which 

 insects use for cuttiiig and tearing their food. 



