The Family of the Camels and Deer 47 



The little Musk-deer has no sort of horn ; but his upper 

 canine teeth are large and form tusks. 



The true Deer have antlers (in the male), which they shed 

 every year. The males, and sometimes the females, have 

 canine teeth in the upper jaw. The antlers are dermal bones, 

 that is, are formed in the skin, and do not grow from the 

 skull. They have two rudimentary digits above the hoofs. 



The whole of this group, which we may call the Camel and 

 Deer family, are almost wholly defenceless, the Giraffe the 

 most so of all, and, excepting those which are useful in 

 domestication, are threatened with extinction. The Camels 

 and the Llamas, although separated as distantly as Peru and 

 Arabia, have in common the very peculiar habit of snorting 

 most offensively at those who oppress or annoy them. 



This large family of Camels and Deer stands between a 

 small one which comprises Pigs, and a very large one, to 

 which Cattle, Sheep, Goats and Antelopes are assigned. 

 Pigs are not ruminants, and have incisor teeth in the upper 

 jaws. Cattle, sheep, &c, like camels and deer, ruminate, 

 and have no cutting teeth in the upper jaw. Their distinctive 

 features are hollow horns (which are present in both sexes), 

 and the invariable absence of tusks. 



The canine teeth in all members of the Giraffe group are 

 peculiar, in that they show a cleft in the free edge which 

 divides them into two lobes. These teeth look as if they 

 belonged to the incisors, but various facts prove them to be 

 really the canines. Those of the extinct Sivatherium, and 

 those of the recently discovered Okapi, have similar peculiari- 

 ties, and thus prove their relationship. 



It is curious that our natural history authorities are not yet 

 agreed as to whether the Giraffe has his fore limbs longer than 

 the hind ones or not. Claus and Sedgwick say, " hind legs 

 much shorter, and therefore the back slopes backwards." 

 Those who have measured the bones, however, say that there 

 is no difference, and that the slope depends entirely upon the 

 setting of the shoulder blade. 



