CHAPTER XIII 
THE HOLLOW HORNED RUMINANTS: OXEN, BISON 
BUFFALOES, AND MUSK-OX 
ATTLE, Deer, Camels, Pigs, Horses, Tapirs, Rhinoceroses, and Elephants differ greatly in 
structure from the orders already described. They are classed as the Ungulates, or 
Hoofed Mammals. In most of these, such as the Horse, Deer, and Oxen, the toes are 
contained within a solid hoof; in others, such as the Rhinoceros, they are protected by broad 
nails. Great differences exist in the feet of the various groups of Ungulates, caused by the 
degree in which the digits, or “toes,” remain in use or not. Except in the Elephant, where 
there are five, the greatest number of “ working” digits found in existing forms is four. In 
the Horse and its surviving allies the digits are reduced to one; in the Giraffes, to two. 
The general process, as it can be learnt from the remains of the horse-like animals of the 
past, seems to have been as follows. One or more of the toes were developed in length and 
strength at the expense of the others, until, in the case of the Horse, only one toe remained, 
which was enclosed in a large and solid hoof, little splints on either side of the cannon-bone 
being left to hint where the second and fourth toes had once been. In the Oxen and Deer the 
third and fourth toes developed equally, .at the expense of the others, and each gained a case 
or covering, which makes the two parts of the “ cloven hoof” of these groups. 
The first group of the order of Ungulates is represented by the Hollow-horned Ruminants. 
These have horns set on a core of bone, the horns themselves being hollow throughout. They 
“chew the cud,” after receiving the food eaten into the first of four divisions in the stomach, 
whence it is brought up into the mouth, and then swallowed again for digestion. The Oxen, 
Sheep, and Goats have no popular name by which they are collectively distinguished, but their 
characteristics are sufficiently 
well known. The horns are 
never shed annually, as is the 
case with the Deer; and the 
hoofs are cloven. They have 
no incisor teeth in the upper 
‘jaw, acharacteristicalso shared 
‘by the Giraffes, the Prongbuck 
(or Americanantelope),andthe 
Deer. The lower jaw has its full 
complement of incisor teeth. 
The Oxen and the allied 
Bison, Yak, and Buffaloes are 
the bulkiest and most impor- 
tant to man of all ruminants. 
Some are found in nearly all 
inhabited parts of the Old 
World, and there is one North 
American species, now practi- ENGLISH PARK-CATTLE 
cally exterminated as a wild This photograph represents two animals of different types. The bull is “purebred 3 the cow is a 
animal. cross-bred 
185 
Photo by E, Lander 
