RUMINATING ANISIALS. 
95 
produced, affording a thick and warm covering, and 
affording that most useful kind of it denominated 
wool. In some, as the sheep, the whole covering 
partakes of this structure : in others, as many of 
the arctic deer, it becomes the ground or root only. 
In the true deer, again, the hair is of a crisp struc- 
ture, but is very close and thick ; while in many of 
the antelopes which inhabit the sandy tracts of Africa, 
the hair is remarkably scanty, affords no covering, 
and is no encumbrance amidst the heat, and the co- 
lour of the animals is represented by that of the skin, 
which becomes changed almost immediately after 
death. 
In geographical distribution the ruminating animals 
are spread over nearly the whole World — New Hol- 
land, and some of the South Sea islands, alone be- 
ing without them. The great mass of the family is 
comprised in the deer and antelopes, and are princi- 
pally distributed over India, Africa, and the Ame- 
ricas. In these countries, they lead lives with very 
different habits. In India and Arnerica, where the 
true deer principally abound, they frequent the thick- 
est jungle, and umbrageous forest. There they re- 
ceive shelter from the sun, lie lazily in the shade 
during the heats of the day, and wander during the 
cool of evening to the outskirts and open glades in 
search of food and water. In Africa, where we have 
the antelopes chiefly, innumerable herds people her 
deserts, mingled with the zebra and ostrich, without 
a shelter, and delighting, as it were, in the heats of 
