292 
MAMMALIA. 
situated in a muzzle, and their eye is clear and full of gentle- 
ness. In most of the species there is, below the internal angle 
of the eye, a small depression, called a tear-pit, which is nothing 
but a sort of gland, secreting a peculiar fluid. This gland is not, 
as might be supposed from the name, the place from which the 
tears proceed. 
The coat of Ruminants which shed their horns is generally I 
brown or fawn-coloured. It is composed of short, close, and brittle , 
hair, which assumes a somewhat woolly nature in the inclement 
regions of the extreme North, more especially in the winter j 
season. 
These Ruminants live in small droves or herds in forests, on 
mountains or plains, and feed on leaves, buds, grass, moss, or the 
bark of trees, &c. They are distributed over all the surface of ! l 
the globe, both in the hottest and coldest climates. The Reindeer j 
and Elk are peculiar to the northern regions of both continents ; 
but numerous species are, on the contrary, allotted to hot and 
temperate countries. 
The family of Ruminants which shed their horns comprehends 
three genera — the Reindeer, the Elk, and the Deer properly so 
called — all differing in the shape and size of their antlers. 
Reindeer Genus (Tarandus ). — The horns of the Reindeer present 
a characteristic arrangement, which enables us, without difficulty, 
to recognise the animal. From the principal stem, which is 
cylindrical and very short, spring two considerable branches, of 
flattened shape, the longest of which tends upwards with various 
twists, terminating in an indefinite number of branches ; the 
other, stretching horizontally over the muzzle, is more moderate 
in the number of its points. As a matter of course, it is only of 
the general conformation of these horns which we are here 
speaking, or, as it were, their typical shape, which may, indeed, j 
vary to an infinite degree without the chief lines of conformation 
ceasing, to exist. jj 
We have already said these antlers do not belong exclusively to | 
the male in this race ; the female also has them, but of smaller pro- ! 
portions. In the male animal, these antlers sometimes attain dimen- 
sions which are really extraordinary ; some have been measured !j 
which are nearly four feet long. This natural ornament is entirely 
renewed in eight months, and, in the females, five months suffice. 
