OR. PLAIN TEACHING. 



187 



ness of the stag, a peculiar com- 

 bination of colours, that renders 

 its appearance admirable. 



This animal is rather larger than the common 

 ass, and bears some resemblance to the mule. 

 The head is of moderate size and well formed, 

 the ears long, the legs delicate, the body grace- 

 ful, and the beauty of its shape heightened by 

 the smoothness of the skin. The colour is either 

 milk white, or faintly tinged with brown, or pale 

 ferruginous, and the whole animal adorned with 

 alternate pale and fuscous bands disposed with 

 such amazing regularity as to have rather the 

 appearance of art than nature. The stripes run 

 in a transverse direction, both on the body and 

 limbs. The head is striped with fine bands of 

 black and whitish, forming a centre in the fore- 

 head. The neck is adorned with stripes of the 

 same, running in the same direction as those on 

 the back, all which point perpendicularly towards 

 the belly. The thighs and legs are fasciated 

 transversely with fuscous. The tail is of mo- 

 derate length, round, rather slender, marked 

 with blackish bands, and terminated by a thick 

 tuft of brownish hair. The colours in the male 

 are remarkably vivid, being sometimes of a fine 

 yellow or yellowish, with the stripes nearly 

 black ; the female is almost white, with the 

 stripes brown. 



These animals are found in the hotter regions 

 of Africa, from Ethiopia to the Cape of Good 

 Hope, and are in particular met with in great 

 plenty in the extensive solitary mountainous 

 wastes of the latter tract of country. They live 

 in large herds, and possess much of the manners 

 both of the horse and the ass, are excessively 

 swift and vigilant, and prefer subsisting on the 

 hard and dry herbage their sterile ham .j 

 afford, to descending into the more fertile and 

 frequented plains. The disposition of the zebra 

 is more unmanageable than that either of the 

 horse or ass ; and even such as have been taken 

 when very young have evinced the same invin- 

 cible degree of passion for liberty, when grown 

 up, as those caught at an age of maturity.* 



RUMINANTIA — I. 



Of the various orders of mam- 

 malia the ruminantia is the most 

 valuable to man, the species 

 comprising it are most universally 

 distributed. The character upon 

 which the order is founded, is a 

 very distinct one, belonging to 

 the whole of the order, and to 

 no other mammalia. They are 

 herbivorous animals, provided 

 with four stomachs ; the first so 

 situated as to receive a large 



* Rcea'a Cyclopedia. 



quantity of vegetable matters 

 coarsely bruised by a first masti- 

 cation, which passes into the 

 second, where it is moistened, 

 and formed into little pellets, 

 which the animal has the power 

 of bringing again to the mouth 

 to be re-chewed, after which it is 

 swallowed into the third stomach ; 

 from which it passes into the 

 fourth, where it is finally digested. 



Ruminating animals are also 

 the only ones provided with 

 horns inserted in the bone at the 

 upper part of the head ; and the 

 various forms of horns, with the 

 character they impart to the 

 animals upon which they grow, 

 are well worthy of observation. 

 The horns of the muntjach, 5, 

 stand erect, and are slightly 

 curved inward at the tip ; those 

 of the chamois, 4, are placed very 

 forward on the head, diverging 

 as they rise upwards, then hooking 

 backwards and inwards ; those 

 of the reitboTc, 3, bend in just the 

 contrary direction to the pre- 

 ceding, and are indented by a 

 deep spiral twist. The horns of 

 sheep, 2, 6, present many curious 

 varieties. In Iceland there are 

 races of sheep remarkable for 

 having horns varying in number 

 from three to eight. 



The ibex, 11, has huge sweeping 

 horns, which curve boldly over 

 the back, their front surfaces 

 presenting a series of protube- 

 rances, forming imperfect rings ; 

 the length of these horns is 

 often three feet. The wapiti, 9, 

 has large branching horns, the 

 branches terminating in sharp 

 solid points ; while the carabous 9 

 10, consist of slender branches, 



