38 
MAMMALIAN GALLERY. 
tlie Malayan has a white back, while the rest are nearly uniformly 
black when adult, although all when young are marked with lon- 
gitudinal stripes of yellow or white. They are thick-set animals, 
with short ears, and with their nose elongated into a short pre- 
hensile proboscis ; they have four toes on their fore, and three on 
their hind feet. 
In the Horses, Asses, and Zebras {Equida) the toes are reduced 
in number to an extent entirely unique among the Mammalia, 
there being only a single digit on each of the four feet, enormously 
strengthened to bear the weight of the body, but yet retaining the 
same composition as our own middle finger. The wild species of 
this family are indigenous in the open plains of Asia and Africa. 
The herds of Wild Horses now found in America are the de- 
scendants of domesticated and introduced animals. Curiously 
enough, however, that continent was in former ages the head- 
quarters of the family, many different forms having been there 
developed, and become again entirely extinct. 
The two Cases in the centre of the Gallery show several members 
of the family, as, for instance, the nearly extinct true Zebra [Equus 
zebra) ; the comparatively common BurchelPs Zebra [Equus bur- 
chelli) of Central South Africa, distinguished by the different 
arrangement of the stripes on the body; the "Wild Ass of Central 
Asia; and several interesting cross-breeds between difi'erent members 
of the Horse family. 
Sub orde r A rt i o da c t y la . 
The Artiodactyla, or Even-toed Ungulates, are distinguished by 
having the two central hoofs of each foot equal in size. They 
consist of two very distinct groups. The members of tlie first are 
the Hippopotami and Pigs, which are non-ruininant, the second 
comprising all the Ruminants, or Mammals that chew the cud. 
Of the Hippopofamidce, which were once extremely numerous in 
this country, in Southern Europe, and India, only two species 
have survived, viz. the Common Hi[)popotamus [H. amphibius), 
too well known to require further notice, and of which several 
stuffed specimens are exhibited in the Saloon ; and the much 
smaller Liberian Hi})popotamus (Case 37), which does not exceed a 
M lid Boar in size, and occurs only in a few localities in AVest Africa. 
