86 
RUMINATING ANIMALS. 
Preferring a solitary country, far from the haunts 
of men, and freed from interruption, this large fa- 
mily lives apparently seeking little except sustenance 
and the continuation of the species. They are ti- 
morous and watchful, and wage no war on weaker 
races, and, except during the season of love, their 
lives With one another are peaceful and unintruding. 
Their defence is watchfulness and speed, for many of 
them are the swiftest animals in the world ; and where 
these properties are less developed, they have strong 
horns, or large and thick or cutting antlers. The 
Buffalo of the Cape will often defeat the lion with 
his powerful front ; and the combat has even pi’oved 
fatal to the king of beasts. The antlers of the larger 
stags are Tormidable barriers, which can seldom be 
broken in upon, and, when brought to act upon the 
defensive, and assisted by the cutting strokes of 
the fore feet, inflict serious and sometimes fatal 
wounds. 
The outward appearance of the Ruminantia is in 
general elegant and pleasing. A few are of clumsy 
proportions, as the Camel, &c. ; and an appearance 
of extraordinary disproportion appears in the Gi- 
raffe ; but the extensive family of the Deer exhibit 
the height of beauty and symmetry, chaste colour- 
ing, and mild expression, embodying the whole 
imagery of the sometimes fanciful descriptions of 
the poets. The Bovidse or Oxen, again, shew the 
greatest combination for strength ; but among the 
wool-bearing animals, the symmetrical parts are con- 
