ZOOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION 
nice distinction is indulged in, that attempt is often 
contemptuously refuted by Nature. The most that 
can be done is to estimate all the characters that can 
be ascertained, and then a given animal can be referred 
to its place by a series of comparisons. For example, 
the little Kanchil, which we describe later, is an Ungu- 
late, although it possesses no horns, and has strong 
canine teeth, which are often wanting in the group. 
We arrive at this conclusion by the consideration of 
the sum total of its anatomical structure. 
We find, for example, that the feet are arranged on 
the plan of those of other horned and canine-toothless 
. Artiodactyle Ungulates, while the stomach has nearly 
the complexity of that of those animals. The brain 
and other organs point in the same direction ; and so, 
in spite of lack of horns and strong development of 
canine teeth, we put the Kanchil near to the deer and 
their allies. This, however, is a simple instance which 
admits of no question. It is quite otherwise with the 
whales and dolphins ; no one has yet been able to put 
before the zoological world convincing arguments as 
to the place which the aquatic mammals occupy in the 
system. In no structural feature is there irrefragable 
evidence of the whale’s place in Nature, though some 
would put them near the order which we are now con- 
sidering. 
Besides the possession of horns and hoofs and the 
usual disappearance or rudimentary condition of the 
canines, it will be noted that the Ungulata are practi- 
cally entirely vegetable-feeding animals. It is true 
that in certain northern regions cattle are fed, when 
fodder is scarce, upon dried fish, and that there are a 
few other instances of the development of a carnivorous 
appetite in the group. But, on the whole, the Ungulata 
are a more purely vegetarian group than is any other of 
existing mammals. Related to this mode of feeding, 
Z.G. 49 E 
