166 



that's it; 



A great majority of the animals 

 classed as mammalia are commonly 

 known as quadrupeds, having four 

 feet adapted for progression upon 

 an extended surface. All mam- 

 mals, however, are not quadru- 

 peds, nor are all quadrupeds 

 mammals. The latter term is 

 derived from the Latin mammae 

 (breasts), and the class contains 

 all those animals which suckle their 

 young by means of breasts. All 

 the mammalia are viviparous — 

 bear their young alive — that is to 

 say, in a state approaching per- 

 fection ; a distinction from those 

 that are oviparous, or that produce 

 their young from eggs. 



The forms of the bodies of 

 mammalia differ very considerably ; 

 but we can generally distinguish 

 a division of the animal into three 

 regions, head, neck, and trunk. 



In the giraffe, 1, the distinction 

 between the head, 2, neck, 3, 

 and trunk, 4, 

 is strongly 

 marked. Al- 

 though, in 

 contrast with 

 the giraffe, the 

 elephant, 5, ap- 

 pears to have 

 no neck, yet 

 in the skeleton 

 of the latter, 

 this division of 

 the system is 

 plainly percep- 

 tible, 6, and 

 contains pre- 

 cisely the same 

 number of 

 494 - bones as the 



neck of the giraffe. The same 

 may be observed with regard to 



the fish-like cetacea, j, the neck 

 being scarcely observable in the 

 living creature, but distinct in 

 the bony structure. 



The forms of the heads and 

 necks of mammalia, should always 



495. 



be noticed in connection with the 

 habits of life of each individual 

 spacies. The small head of the 

 giraffe, 2, is admirably adapted, 

 by its lightness, to be raised at the 

 end of the extended lever formed 

 by its neck, 3. The elephant is 

 probably as powerful in its trunk, 

 7, as the giraffe in its neck, 3. But 

 were the large head of the elephant, 

 5, to be attached to the end of 

 the trunk, 7, the animal would 

 be utterly incapable of raising its 

 head; the neck, 6, is therefore 

 shortened, and a kind of supple- 

 mentary neck furnished by the 

 trunk, 7. We therefore see that, 

 however varied the works of, 

 nature may be, there is admirable 

 design in them all, and that the , 



