ffURAL H /' 1\ .4.. XjliSJbCA-JrtX rrs Apiciltml_Collep J. PRESENTEDBT This book may be kept out TWO WEEKS only and is subject to a fine of TWO CENTS a day tliereafter. It will be due on the day indicated below. • o o 7i) I in m d^il i ■■t-OT J^ATURAL HISTORY OP MAMMALS. ELLIOTT COUES, M.D., Ph.D. THEODORE GILL, M.D., Ph.D. J. S. KINGSLEY. W. N. LOCKINGTON. SAMUEL LOCKWOOD, Ph.D. GEORGE MACLOSKIE, LL.D. WILLIAM B. SCOTT, Ph.D. R. RAMSAY WRIGHT, Ph.D. Vitlpes rnlpeg, fox. A> kl If .1/ THE STANDARD NATURAL HISTORY. EDITED BY JOHN STERLING KINGSLEY. Vol. V. MAMMALS. lUttstvatetT BY TWO HUNDRED AND FORTY-FOUR WOOD-CUTS AND FORTY-TWO FULL-PAGE PLATES. Boston: S. E. CASSINO AND COMPANY. 1884. Copyrujilt by S. E. Cassino and Compakv, 1884. '^o<^■ C. J. PETEKS AND SON, STEREOTVl'EKS AKD ELEfTROTYrERS, 145 High SinEtT. CONTEN^TS. Class X. — Mammalia .... Sub-Class I. — Ornithodelphia Order I. — Monotremata . Sub-Class II. — Didelphia Order I. — Marsupialia Sub-Class III. — Monodelphia Order I. — Bkuta or Edentata SuB-OKDEB I. — LORICATA . Sub-Order II. — Tardigrada Sub-Order III. — Vermilinguia Sub-Order IV. — Fodextia . Sub-Order V. — Squamata Okder II. — Rodentia .... Sub-Ordeu I. — Hebetidentata Sub-Order II. — Duplicidentata Sub-Order III. — Simplicidentata Order III. — Insectivora . Sub-Order I. — Besti.e Sub-Order II. — Deemoptera Order IV. — Chiboptera Sub-Order I. — Feugivora • . Sub-Order II. — Animalivora . Order V. — Cetace.a .... Sub-Order I. — Delphixoidea . Sub-Order II. — Bal.exoide.^. Sub-Okder III. — Phocodontia . Order VI. — Sirenia .... Order VII. — Proboscidea . Order Vill. — Hyr.\coide.\ Order IX. — Toxodontia '"Order X. — UxGULATA Sub-Order I. — Pekissodactyla Sub-Oeder II. — Aetiodactyla \^ PAGE 1 11 11 20 20 46 46 47 5.3 59 60 62 68 72 73 81 134 135 156 159 162 163 178 182 195 203 210 215 229 231 233 235 262 vi CONTENTS. Group I. — Suina 263 GKOUP II. — RUMINAUTIA 276 Super-family I. — Tylopoda 279 Super-family II. — Tkagulina 287 SUPER-FA-MILY III. — PeCORA 289 Order XI. — Carnivora 353 Sub-Order I. — Fissipedia 354 Super-family I. — Arctoidea 354 Super-family II. — Cynoidea 408 SUPER-FAMILY' III. — ^I.UROIDEA 431 Sub-Order II. — Pinnipedia 466 Order SII. — Primates 480 Sub-Order I. — Lemuroidea 481 Sub-Order II. — Ajjthropoidea 493 LIST OF PLATES. PAOS Fox Frontispiece Banded Akt-eateb and Bandicoot . 34 Giant Kangakoo 36 Two-toed Sloth 5S Capybaha 82 Patagonian Cavy 8i European Porcupine 88 Mouse and Brown Eat 108 Harvest Mouse 110 Bobac 122 Taguan 130 Ciliated Shrew and Tupai .... 148 Flying Fox 162 Rorqual 196 Greenland Whale and Black Killer 200 Cutting up the Whale 208 African Elephant 214 iNDiAif Elephant 218 Indian Rhinoceros 244 Shetland Ponies 248 Zebba 260 PAOE Red Deek 292 Giraffe 312 Dutch and Durham Cows 314 Bison 316 Yak 322 Gazelle 328 Antelopes 340 Ibex 348 CoATi 362 Sloth Bear 370 Hunting Dog 428 Hyena 432 Tiger 448 Leopard 450 Puma 452 Spider Monkeys 510 Hands and Feet of Monkeys . . . 512 Javanese Macaques 516 Orang-utan 520 Chimpanzee 524 Gorilla 526 SPECIAL NOTICE. The dates of issuance of the parts com]30sing this volume are as follows : Pages 1 to 96, October 18, 1883; pages 97 to 144, December 26, 1883; pages 145 to 240, January 18, 1884; pages 241 to 288, February 21, 1884; pages 289 to 384, March 12, 1884; pages 385 to 480, April 2, 1884; pages 481 to 528, April 15, 1884. NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. Class X. — MAIVOIALIA. In the beginning of the third vohime of tills series we have a general account of the anatomy and physiology of the branch of Vertebrata; and here, as an introduction to the class of Mammals, we need only to refer very briefly to some of the special diagnostic characters which separate this group from the other divisions of backboned animals. In this account we have intentionally omitted those features which are common to all ^•ertebrates, and all description of physiological phenomena which, as explained in the ordinary school text-books of human physiology, will apply as well to the whole class of mammals as to man. The Mammalia, the highest class of the animal kingdom, is more distinctly marked off from all other groups than are many of the classes considered in the preceding volumes. While there frequently exists a doubt as to the proper boundaries of some of the lower groups, or their relative importance in the scale of perfection, no such hesitancy is felt regarding the limits or the grade of the mammalia. Even within the limits of the class the orders are aU well defined, and in most cases their relative rank is pretty well settled. This superiority of the mammalia over all other classes of the animal kingdom does not im])l_y that every organ is more perfect or better adapted to its purpose, or that every individual is really higher ; but that when we come to regard the totality of the organization, and the setting' apart of portions of the body for some specific purpose, resulting in an increased differention of organs and an increased complexity of the organism, upon which alone the relative rank of animal rests, the higher rank is at once evident. Thus the human eye, far from being the perfect organ described in some works of a teleological tendency, is less perfect than that of the eagle in many respects, and yet no one would think on this account of placing the bird of prey higher than man. Like all vertebrates, the mammals never have more than two pairs of limbs, but with the exception of some of the aquatic forms (whale, etc.), these two pairs are always present, whence the name in frequent use for the class — quadrupeds. The anterior pair of limbs are never absent in the group. Except in a few forms, to be noted below, the body is covered with hair. The mouth is usually armed with teeth. The heart is four-chambered, and the circulation is complete. The blood is warm and contains non-nucleated red corpuscles. The body cavity is divided into two portions by a transverse muscle, the diaphragm, or "midriff," the anterior portion being called the pleural, and the posterior, or abdominal portion, the peritoneal cavity. The young are born alive, and are afterward nourished by milk, secreted by milk- glands (mammce), whence the name of the class. VOL. V. — 1 2 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. In size the Mammalia vary from the tiny harvest-mouse of Euroj^e, which weighs scarcely more than an old-fashioned copper cent, to the whales, which are said to some- times reach the neighborhood of a hundred feet in length, the largest representatives of the animal kingdom now alive. Turning now to some of the details of structure, we have to note that the hair, which is found alone in mammals, occurs upon at least a portion of the body in every member of the group. In the young whales hairs are found in various parts, but in the adult they have entirely disappeared, with the exception of a few bristles near the mouth of some forms. Hairs are to be regarded as epidermal structures. Each hair is a solid body without nerves or blood-vessels, and increases in size from the root. To the microscoj^ist, hairs (especially those of bats) have been of great interest from the peculiar ornamentations which they exhibit, the cells of which they are formed frequently forming prominent whorls of scales or spines around the body. It is by the interlocking of these scales that hairs can be "felted." Wool possesses this property to a marked degree. Some hairs, as for example the whiskers, or vibrissaa, of cats, are connected at their base with branches of the fifth pair of cerebral nerves, thus con- stituting them organs of touch ; a feature to which we shall recur in connection with that sense. In the porcupine, hedgehog, spiny ant-eater, etc., some of the hairs become greatly enlarged, forming spines which, being moved by appropriate muscles, can be elevated so as to produce a most effective defensive armor. These same muscles occur, although less highly developed, in the whole of the mammalia, enabling the dog to raise the hairs along the middle of the back, and the cat which he chases to greatly increase the apparent size of her tail. A still further modification of hair appears in the horns of some j'uminants, as the cow, where the outer surface, the horn of com- merce, is usually regarded as consolidated hair. The horn of the rhinoceros partakes of the same character, while in the armadillos the hair unites with the plates of bone developed in the skin, forming a solid investment for the upper portion of the body. The claws and hoofs of the Mammalia are also usually regarded as morphological differentiations of hair, but there seem to be strong objections to this view. In their osseous system mammals are well marked off from all other vertebrates. The bones contain a large proportion of salts of lime, and hence possess a gi'eater rigidity than is usually the ease in the other classes. The skull articulates with the first bone (atlas) of the vertebral column by two rounded prominences (occipital condyles), one on each side of the large opening {/'oramen onagnum). In the Batrachia alone do we find a similar structure, but even here a very important distinction arises. In the Batrachia these condyles are formed by the exoccipitals alone, in the Mammalia the basioccipital enters into their composition. The bones of the face are innnovably united with each other, although here, as in the rest of the skull, the sutures usually remain distinct throughout life, though sometimes they become obliterated in the adult, especially late in life. Although arising from several centres, each half of the lower jaw consists of but a single bone, and articulates directly with the skull, without the intervention of the quadrate bone, which, when present, occupies this position in the lower group of vertebrates, but which in the mammals forms one (malleus) of the chain of small bones of the ear. In most mammals the superior maxillaries are more elongate than in man, and the inter-maxillaries usuallj^ remain distinct. The cavity of the skull, as in birds, is completely occupied by the brain, and is more or less distinctly divided into three portions for the reception of the corresponding divisions of the brain, and in some instances the boundaries between the cerebral and cerebellar cavities are INTRODUCTION. 3 empliasized by the development of a transverse membranous or bony process, the tentorium. In the mammals alone, and here but occasionally, does the squamous portion of the temporal bone form a portion of the enclosing wall of the cranial cavity. The vertebral column presents but few points of popular interest. The body of each vertebra is generally flat on the articular surfaces, though in some groups (c. g., sopie Ungulata) the anterior surface is convex, the posterior concave. Between the vertebra} are placed elastic cushions, intervertebral cartilages, which give the column its flexibility and in man protects the brain from the jar of walking. The column can be generally divided into five more or less distinct portions: cervical, dorsal, lumbar, sacral, and caudal, corresponding respectively to the neck, back, " small of the back," pelvis, and tail. Tiie total number of vertebrae varies greatly. Some of the bats have but twenty-six, Hyrax and Choloepus forty, while the long-tailed Manis of Africa has forty-six in the tail alone. The number of cervicals is very con- stantly seven, the only exceptions wliich occur to the writer being six in the Manatees, and one species of Cholcepus, and nine in the three-toed sloths. From this it will be seen that the length of neck does not depend upon the number of the bones ; the gu-a£fe, whose neck is three-sevenths of that of the entire body, having exactly the same number of cervical vertebrae as man, where the neck is proportionally but a third as long. In most mammals the cervicals are all free, but in the whales every gradation can be found from the narwal and fin-back whales, where all are free, to Balaena and Hyperodon, where sometimes they are all coalesced. In the remaining divisions of the vertebral column the number of elements is very irregular, the dorsal and lumbar together showing a variation between fourteen in the Armadillos to thirty in Hyrax, and even in the same genus a large difference is some- times found. In the sacral and caudal portions this irregularity is increased. The ribs, which are movably articulated with the dorsal vertebrae, usually differ from those of birds, in tliat the portions which are connected with the breast-bone (sternum) remain cartilaginous throughout life, ossification occurring here in but a few forms. Except in the monotremes, the shoulder-girdle differs from that of reptiles and birds in the extremely rudimentary condition of the coracoid, which occurs only as a process of the scapula. The clavicle is not always present, for it is not found in the Cetacea, Ungulata, and some edentates, while it exists only in a rudimentary form in the carnivores and some rodents. The episternum is present only in the monotremes. The anterior limbs are never absent, and here we find the same divisions which we have found in other groups. Upper arm {kumerus), forearm {radius and ulna), wrist (carpus), palm {metacarpus), and fingers {phalanges). The humerus presents no striking jieculiarities, but as we proceed outward from the body the amount of variation increases. In forms where the radius and ulna are free, as in man, there is usually more or less ))ower to rotate the hand; but when united, as in the ungulates, this capacity for rota- tion is lost, while together with this union of the bones of the forearm, it is frequently found that the ulna shows a more or less marked tendency toward obsolescence, as is well exemplified in the liorse and among the bats. The carpus is composed of from five to eight small bones: in the feet the variations become so extensive, both as to form and numl)er, as to be in some instances only of generic importance, and hence need not be mentioned here. The posterior limbs are wanting in the whales and Sirenia alone, and here their abortion has extended so far that the pelvis itself has .-ilmost entirely disappeared, it being represented by a pair of small bones embedded in the muscles and not otherwise 4 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. connected with the skeleton, and concerning wliose homologies anatomists are yet uncertain. In the seals, where the hinder limbs form a sort of fin or paddle, this degener- ation of limbs and skeleton has proceeded not quite so far, for the femur or thigh-bone (which here is almost entirely formed of the two articular surfaces, the shaft being greatly reduced in length) shows the greatest deviation from the normal type, wlnln the other and more distal bones are not so greatly modified. Details will be found under the various orders. In their reproduction mammals show many important points of difference from all other groujis of the animal kingdom. Among the other forms there are many cases where the young is brought forth alive, but in these instances the egg merely under- goes its development inside the parent without any very intimate connection existing between the two ; while in the Mammalia, the young as long as retained within the parent receives nourishment from her, and after birth the mother continues to feed the jn-ogeny with milk from peculiar glands called mammre, whence the name of the class Mammalia. The young are, in the different orders, born in different stages of develop- ment ; in the marsupials the young are very helpless and very imperfect, while in the cow and horse they are able to run alone and to suckle ; between these two extremes various intermediate phases may be found. As has just been stated, the Mammalia pass through a portion of their development Avhile inside the mother, receiving nourislnnent from her. In all, except the mono- tremes and marsupials, a placenta is formed by a union of the allantois with the mem- branes of the uterus, and through this placenta the nourishment is conveyed to the embryo. This subject is, however, better adapted for treatment in more technical works, and with this slight mention we dismiss it here. From a systematic standpoint the teeth are very important organs in the structure of the mammals, for their variations are usually of such a well-defined cluiracter that they may be used as foundations of schemes of classification, and afford valid char- acters for the sejiaration not only of species and genera, but of higher groups as well. The teeth in most forms are divided into four groups. Following the grouping derived from human anatomy we will give the characters of those in the upper jaw, those of the lower corresponding in name according to their relative position : 1st, incisors, the teeth with usually sharp-cutting edges and simple roots, implanted in the intermax- iUary bone in the centre of the jaw ; 2d, the canines, situated in the maxillary bone just behind the intermaxillary suture ; 3d, the molars, which in turn are divided into two groups — the premolars or molars which replace tlie temporary molars, and the true molars which do not replace temporary teeth. With this classification it is an easy matter to express in figures the number of teeth in any animal without unnecessary repetition by means of a "dental formula." In this the teeth are represented in the form of fractions, those of the upper jaw forming the nuiiierator, those of the lower the denominator. Thus the milk dentition of a child would be written i - — ", c - — i, p - — =, m ^—L = 20 sliowmg that there are two incisors, one canme and 2—2 1—1 ^ 2—2 0—0 ' " two premolars in each side of each jaw, while the molars are absent. The pernuxnent dentition of man would be the same, except that the molars would i-ead in. ] . The dental formula of the kangaroo is i j^, c ^—^, p t^, m r^ = 28 ; showing that ttere are three incisors on each side in the upper jaw and but one in the lower. The canines are absent, while there are one premolar and four molars in either side of each jaw. For INTRODUCTION. 5 convenience, it is customary to represent but one-li.alf of oacli jaw in the formula, so that that of the kangaroo usually appears as i -jSj-, c g, p |, ni |. The teeth are to be regarded as partly epidermal, the enamel being formed from that layer, while the cement atid dentine grow from the true derm. At an eai-ly stage a slight groove is formed in the surface of the jaw, gradually deepens, and finally the margins unite, leaving a cavity entirely enclosed 1)}' the skin. The lining of this cavity, which from its mode of origin we know to be epidermal, produces the enamel of the tooth, and at the same time a papilla of the true skin is forming the bulk of the tooth. In cases where milk as well as permanent teeth are developed a second pocket grows out from the first, finally separates, and there forms the permanent tooth. In the monotremes, edentates, and Cetacea but a single set of teeth are formed — all others in which teeth occur have two sets. The dental variations of a few mammals may here be noticed. In the ant-eater no teeth are found, while the duck-bill has only horny plates. Incisors are lacking in tiie sloths and canines in the rodents. In the whales (except in the fossil gi'oup of Zeuglodontia) the teeth when present never have more than a single root, and in the whalebone whales the teeth are absorbed before birth. In the male narwal one of the canines (left) acquires an enormous development, sometimes eight feet in length. In the elephants, the upjjer incisors form the tusks, those of the lower jaw not being developed. The alimentary tract of the mammals consists of the mouth, with its teeth, oeso]ih- agus, stomach, and the small and large intestines. With them may be also con- sidered the various accessory organs of digestion ; the liver, gall-bladder, and pancreas. Salivary glands are present, except in the Denticete whales. In most mammals the stomach is simple, as in man, but in many rodents, in the upper portion, there is a large accumulation of glands. In the kangaroo, and in Pteropus and Semiopithicus the stomach is elongate, and resembles a part of the large intestine, and in the last-men- tioned form it is divided into thi'ee chambers, a structure which has a somewhat similar exemplification in the sloths and toothed whales, and which suggests to us the com- pound stomachs of the ruminants, which will be discussed at length in coiniection with the order of ungulates in a later portion of this volume. The intestine is usually longer in the mammals than in the other vertebrates, and among this class it acquires the greatest development in length in the herbivorous forms. The small intestines are lined (except in a few forms) with longitudinal villi, thus increasing the absorptive surface. At the junction of the small and large intestine, a blind prolongation {ccecum) is usually fouiid. In Myrmecopliaga didactyla there are two of these coeca, but in the closely allied J/, jubata, no such diverticula are found. At the extremity of the rectum there is developed in many carnivores (badger, hyena, and the familiar skunk), and some few other forms, a number of glands which secrete a highly odorous fluid. In all the mammals, excejjt the Ornithodelphia, the genital and intestinal open- ings are se])arate, but in the latter sub-class they open into a cloaca, as in birds. The liver is as a rule more divided into lobes among the carnivores than among the vegetable-feeders. The gall-bladder is wanting among a large number of mammals, lieing absent among many rodents, some ruminants, the toothed whales, the elephant, horse, etc. In the dolphins the spleen is divided into several small distinct masses (sometimes as many as eighteen). The intestine is supported by the mesentery, and in this mesentery, in mammals alone, are found lymphatic glands. The general physi- ology of the digestive system of mammals may be learned from any text-book of iiuman physiology, the differences between the various forms being very slight. 6 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. In the organs of circulation we see a general similarity to those of birds. The heart is four-chambered, and is invested with a pericardium. In its shape it shows considerable variation, being broad in the Cetacea and Proboscidea, elongate in the dog, round in most monkeys, or conical in the horse, ox, orangutan, and man. In fcetal life the two auricles communicate with each other by an opening in the wall between them, the foramen ovale. In adults this aperture is usually closed after birth, liut in the seals, and other forms leading an aquatic life, it sometimes remains open. The two auricles are situated above, the two ventricles below, and for sake of distinction, the terms right and left are applied to each. Each auricle communicates with the ventricle of the same side, the opening being provided with valves, which allows the blood to pass in but one direction — from the auricle to the ventricle. The venae cavae terminate in the right auricle, the jjulmonary vein in the left auricle, while from the right ventricle arises the pulmonary artery, and from the left the great artery (the aorta) of the body. The details of the circulation do not properly belong here, and so only a few general statements are made. The blood, which is poured into the right auricle from the system by means of the venae cavse, passes thence to the ventricle of the same side, which forces it through the lungs. In these organs the blood is exposed to the influence of the oxygen of the air, giving off carbonic oxide, and then, by means of the pulmonary vein, it passes back to the left auricle, thence to the left ventricle and through the aorta, and the artei'ies which arise from it, passes into the general circulation, to be again gathered up, after jiassing through cajiillaries, by the veins, and conducted to the two large venous trunks, the sujjerior and inferior vena? cavie, and thence to the right auricle. Beyond these points the general features of the mam- malian circulation need not here be discussed, as the account given in most text-books of human anatomy or ])hysiology will apjjly, in a general way, to the whole group of mammals, while an account of the variations from that type falls within the province of the technical manuals of comparative anatomy. Some of the principal diagnostic points which separate the mammals from the other vertebrates may, however, be men- tioned. In their circulation mammals differ from all vertebrates, except birds, in having a four-chambered heart and a complete circulation ; that is, all the impure blood which is received by the heart is sent to the lungs for purification, and only oxygenized blood goes into the general circulation. From the birds we notice a difference in the fact that the left instead of the light aortic branch of the foetus persists as the aorta in adult life, and that in most mammals (except the duck-bill, elephant, and most i-odents) there exists but one superior vena cava. In most of the Mammalia (except the camels, lama, etc.), the red, non-nucleated blood corpuscles are almost perfectly circular in outline. The size is quite variable, as will be seen from the following examples taljen from Dr. Gulliver's measurements : — Musk deer, TSoiJo of an inch. Ox, isVo of an inch. Red deer. sAa Dog, JsVtF Goat, ffaVij Man, 5T5(JT)-4(!00 Sheep, 53V5 Elephant, IT A a Horse, ?B^Ty Two-toed sloth. 5^(1 Cat, 4?\jU Wolf, TTBOiT In criminal trials the microscopic appearance of blood-stains and blood-clots are frequently of great importance, but evidence of this character should be very cautiously accepted ; for while it may be possible to state with certainty that a stain is 'not pro- INTRODUCTION. 7 duced by the blood of birds or sheep, still one cannot say with absolute certainty that it is produced by human blood. The size of the corpuscles is the feature given most weight, but while a diameter of one three-thousandth of an inch is most usual in man, smaller corpuscles, sometimes reaching to the other extreme given above, are not infrequently seen. Among the respiratory portions of the anatomy we may enumerate the trachea, bronchial tubes, and the lungs. The trachea (considering the larynx but a modified portion of it) arises at the lower end of the jiharynx, just before the beginning of the oesophagus, and passes down in front of that canal until the pleural cavity is reached, where it divides into two or (in Ruminantia, dolphins, and a few other forms) three bronchi, which are distributed to tlie two lobes of the lungs. The trachea and bronchi are formed of a series of rings of cartilage placed one after the other, and in order to economize room, the posterior portions of the tracheal rings are membranous, so that when food is passing down the a?sophagus the necessary enlargement of that canal is obtained by the jjressing in of the soft portion of the trachea. In a few forms (e. g. the dolphins) the rings are more perfect, while it is stated that in tlie whales the anterior portion of the trachea is membranous. This difference may be noted between the trachea of mammals and birds, that in the latter the organs of sound are situated at the lower end of the tube; in the former, at the upper, in a specialized portion called the larynx, which throughout the whole of mammalia exhibits much the same structure as in man. Each bronchus is divided up, usually dichotomously, into a number of bronchial tubes, in connection with the extremities of which are the terminal cells of the lungs. In all mammals there are two lungs which usually are divided into a varying number of loljes. In the mechanism of breatliing a structure occurs which is usually regarded as peculiar to mammals, though in reality traces oi it are found in some birds. The body cavity in this group is divided into two portions by a nearly horizontal muscle. In the upper (the pleural cavity) are found the heart and lungs, in the lower (peritoneal) cavity occur the organs of digestion. This muscular partition, which is perforated for the passage of the cesophagus and blood-vessels, is called the diaphragm. When this muscle contracts it recedes, increasing the cavity of the thorax, and thus the air is drawn into the lungs. This act of inspiration is also aided, as in birds, by the ribs, which are moved chiefly bj- the intercostal muscles, but the perfect diaphragm is found in mammals alone. . It is in the development of the nervous system that the mammals are especially seen to be the highest group of the Vertebrata, and this development shows itself as much in the extent to which it is carried as in the methods of execution. The brain is distinguished from that of all other vertebrates by a commissure (Pons varolii) uniting the hemispheres of the cerebellum, while the cerebral hemispheres are connect- ed to a greater or less extent by an anterior commissure and a superior transverse commissure, the corpus callosum. These two cerebral commissures are developed in nearly an inverse ratio ; in the Monodelphia the corpus callosum is well devel- oped, the anterior commissure being small ; in the placental forms these relations are reversed, the anterior commissure being large, the corpus callosum rudimentary. The cerebrum is by far the larger portion of the brain, and in the highest forms completely covers the cerebellum as it lies in the cavity of the skull. In most mammals the cerebrum is more or less convoluted, and as the convolutions increase in complexity so increases the relative rank of the animal. In recent times man^- 8 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. observations have been made upon these convohitions in an endeavor to localize the various impulses of the mind, and although the results (mostly obtained from dogs) are as yet very fragmentary, they are highly interesting and instructive. The discussion of these results would be out of place here, but we may note, in passing, that they do not show the slightest accord with the now thoroughly exploded theories of j)hrenology. In the lower forms we find that the whole of the spinal cord func- tionates to a certain extent as a brain, but with the higher rank we find the brain more and more specialized, and consequently increased in size. Geology tells us the same story. In the eocene mammals the cerebral lobes of the brain were scarcely larger than the begiiming of the spinal cord ; in the dog of the present day it is twice, and in man seven times as broad as the cord. The nerves of the Mammalia correspond in a general way with those of man, though of course, with the varj'ing number of vertebra, we find a corresponding difference in the number of spinal nerves. The jjhraenic nerves, which arise piincipally from the fourth pair of cervical nerves, and supply the diaphragm, are peculiar to mammals. As a rule the senses acquire their highest development in the Mammalia. The sense of touch exists in almost all parts of the surface of the body, excei^t in the epidermal structures, hair, nails, horns, etc., but acquires very different developments in different portions. The relative sensibilities and capacity for distinguishing between different impressions which exist in A'arious portions of the human body have been tested by a very simple but ingenious experiment. The jjoints of a pair of dividers were placed on various portions, and the least distance noted at which distinct sensa- tions were experienced at the same time from each point. From this it was learned that the tip of the tongue is the most sensitive portion, the points being recognized when but a twenty-fifth of an inch apart ; the inner surface of the tip of the fore-finger, one-twelfth of an inch, comes next, while on the middle of the back, when the points were less than two and a half inches apart, the impressions could not be distinguished. In many forms we find accessory tactile organs, as in the whiskers, or as they are technically called, vibrissce, of the cat and other animals. These hau-s are in con- nection with branches of the fifth pair of nerves. It was a favorite experiment with the older naturalists to remove these whiskers, and it is claimed that when thus deprived, cats were unable to catch rats, rats unable to find their holes, etc. On the other hand, with the eyes bandaged, and the use of the senses of smell and hearing prevented, rabbits were able to find then- way about by the whiskers alone. The wings of bats have been shown by the researches of Spallanzoni, and later of Schobl, to be extraordinarily sensitive, and well supplied with nerves. By their aid alone, and wthout any assistance from any other sense, bats are able to avoid all obstacles in their flight. Taste is also well developed in this group, and has its seat in the tongue and palate. Special organs of taste, as developed in man, are the papillre, of which three principal forms are distinguished, the larger and least numerous type of which (circumvallate pa]:)illa3) are richly supplied (and the others to a less extent) ^^ith peculiar cellular structures called gustatory buds, and which are sup2iosed to receive the imiJi-essions, and through the ncr\'es with which they are connected (branches of the glosso- pharyngeal) to carry the sensation to the brain. Against this idea that the gustatory buds are organs of taste may be mentioned the fact that they occur in jslaces (e. (/., the epiglottis) where this sense is wholly lacking. Much of what we usually con- sider as taste is in reality smell, and the experiment of holding the nose and trying INTRODUCTION. 9 to taste (different substances with the month alone is very instructive in this con- nection. The olfactory organs of the mammals differ from those of other vertebrates in the perforated cribriform plate of the ethmoid through which branches of nerves go to the nasal cavity, and also in the secondary sinuses found in the frontal and superior maxillary bones by which the extent of surface is increased, though it is not yet certain exactly what part these cavities play in the perception of odors. The special seat of the sense appears to be in that portion of the mucous membrane which covers the middle and superior turbinated bones. In this membrane Max Schultze has found peculiar cellular structures, which may possibly prove to be the ultimate sense organs. Eyes are present in all mammals, though in some cases (moles, etc.,) these organs are so covered by skin and hair that the extent to which they are of use by the animal is very small. As a rule, all tliree eyelids are present, but in man and the apes the third (the nictitating membrane of reptiles and birds) is rudimentary, being represented by the so-called semilunar fold at the inner angle of the eye. Of the eye itself we may say that the j^cculiar modification of the choroid, known as the tapetum lucidum (a fibi'ous membrane with gi-een or blue metallic reflections), is present in many mammals, and is the cause of the peculiar apjiearance of the eyes of many animals (e. g., cats) in the dark. The sclerotic never develops a bony ring, nor does the choroid ever give rise to that peculiar fan-like structure, the pecten of I'eptiles and birds, or the similar falciform process of fishes. Another distinction from the eyes of birds is the fact that the ciliary nerves penetrate to the iris from every side (instead of entering beneath), and then branching, have a circular distribution. Recent studies have greatly extended our knowledge of the structure of the eye, especially in the human being, but we are as yet in the dark as to what part each portion plays in the phenomena of sight. We know from " Purkinjie's figures " that the visual sensations originate in some part of the retina, between the retinal vessels and the choroid coat, but how is as yet unascertained. We know that the posterior portion of the retina is made up of a series of "rods and cones," but what part these play is uncertain, and the fact that in many vertebrates (e. g., snakes) the cones alone are found does not help us out of our difficulties. Investigations have shown that in connection with the rods a color is produced which is known as the " visual purjile," and which is affected by light to the extent of entire bleaching, and by some this pigment is supposed to be connected with the perception of color; but when we learn that in the "yellow spot," where vision is most distinct, the visual purjjle is wanting, this view ap]iears imten- able. In short, while we have a detailed and accurate knowledge of the anatomy and histology of the organ of vision, we know comparatively little of its physiological action. The ears of the niammalia differ from those of all other vertebrates in ha\'ing the quadrate bone (which in the other forms serves to connect the lower jaw with the skull) as a member (the malleus) of the chain of small bones of the ear, connecting the tympanic membrane with the labyrinth. In all, except the monotremes, we also find a new feature in tlie labyrinth, a s])iral portion, the cochlea. What part this cochlea plays in the act of hearing is not yet settled. In it is found a long series of fibres known as the "organ of Corti." From the fact that each of these fibres is in connection with a nerve fibre, and th.at from base to apex the series diminishes in length, it has been supposed that it is the function of this portion of the ear to recognize pitch, each fibre vibrating to its own peculiar note. The greatest objection to this view is the 10 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. fact that in birds, which certainly have the power to recognize pitcli, the organ of Corti, together with the whole cochlea, is absent. The Mammalia, following the most recent classification, that of Dr. Gill, are divided into three sub-classes, Ornithodeljihia (comprising the Monotreines alone), the Didelphia (the Marsupials), and the Monodelphia, whicli embraces all the remaining forms, which are distributed among twelve orders. The Ornithodelphia have the episternura and coracoid-bone developed as much as in birds. Their reproductive organs follow the same plan, emptying as they do together with the intestine and urinary organs, into a eloacal chamber; while the milk-glands have no distinct nipples. In the Didelphia the anterior commissure of the cerebral hemispheres is well developed, the corpus callosum is rudimentary. The young when bom are very small and imperfectly developed, and are usually caiTied in a pouch, attached to the nipples until well developed. In these, as in the Ornithodelphia, no placenta is found. The INIonodelphia, the highest sub-class, have tlie anterior cerebral commissure small, the corpus callosum large. The young are retained in the uterus until of nearly perfect development, and nourished by the mother by the intervention of a placenta. As in the Didelpliia, the urogenital and intestinal openings are distinct, no cloaca being present, while the episternum is wanting, and the coraeoid is but very feebly develojjed, and never connected with the sternum. MONOTREMES. H Sub-Class I. — Oknithodelphia. Okder L — MONOTREMATA. The two very remarkable animals whose natural history we are now about to dis- cuss are, as far as appearance goes, so unlike each other that it is no wonder that their affinities were not at first rccounized. Geoffroy St. Hilau'e was one of the first natural- ists to detect their relationship, and he selected for them the ordinal name of Mono- tremata in reference to the remarkable birdlike anatomical feature which is common to both, viz. : the possession of only a single aperture, " the cloacal aperture," through which the contents of tlie intestines and the jiroducts of the urinary and genital organs pass outwards. Both of the forms are confined to Australia and the adjacent island of Tasmania; and, whether we regard them merely with curiosity as to their appearance and habits, or with the eyes of the scientific zoologist, they are equally worthy of receiving a more than ordinary share of attention in any zoological work. Especially to the evolutionist are the two forms important, for without the rational explanation which the theory of evolution affords for all the abnormalities they possess, they would indeed deserve to have applied to them the term " paradoxus," which was employed as a specific name by the German naturalist Blumenbach for the Water-mole or Duck-mole of the Aus- tralian colonists, to which we shall first turn our attention. The Duck-mole {MaUangong or Tanibreet of the native Australians) owes its popular names to its anuatic and burrowing habits, and to the duck-like bill which it possesses. Tlie latter peculiarity is referred to twice in its scientific name, Orni- thorhynchus anudnus, while the name under which it was first described at the end of the last century by Dr. Shaw, Platypus anatinus, was suggested on account of the webbed feet which its aquatic mode of life renders necessary. Adult specimens meas- ure about eighteen inches in length from the point of the bill to the tip of the tail, the upper half of the bill being three inches long by two in width, and the tail as much as four and a half inches by rather more than three. The females are smaller than the males, but present no other sexual peculiarities except the absence of a spur, which will be afterwards referred to. The general color of the fur in both sexes is deep brown, paler on the under parts of the body, and brighter in the young. The bill and web of the forefeet are naked, and the tail is covered with coarse hairs, which eventually become worn off from the imder surface. Two kinds of hair are noticeable in the fur, one extremely fine and close-set, forming the dense under fur, which is protected from the water and soil by an outer coating of coarse flat hairs. The latter are pecu- liarly shaped, for only their free ends, which project beyond the under fur, are flat, and are set on at an angle to the slenderer attached ends. The long upfier and lower jaws are covered with an extremely sensitive naked skin of a grayish color, which is for the most jiart firmly attached to the underlying l)ones, but possesses a flexible lip-like border all round the mouth, and is raised into a frill-like fold round the base of the bill, which in burrowing and searching for food in the mud is turned back so as to protect the eyes and prevent the soiling of the fur. The nostrils are situated near the front of the upper bill, and very often the Duck-moles are seen 12 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. lying in the water with little Init these apertures above the surface. The position of the small but bi-illiant eyes is rendei-ed more evident by a bright tawny spot situated over them, but on account of the absence of a piima, the ears are easily over- looked, except in the living animal, where their orifices are kept well opened. The fore legs are short, but more powerful than the hind ; as in many other aquatic forms, they are directed outwards from the body, and are thus unaljlc to support the body from the ground. Each foot has five toes provided witli strong claws, which are blunt on tlie fore feet, but pointed and more slender and curved on the liind feet. The web between the toes in the fore feet extends further than the claws, and when fully spread out Fig. 1. — Oniithorhi/nchus anatmus, Duck-mole. forms !in expanse of more than four inches wide ; on the liind feet the web only extends to the base of the claws, is covered with short, close hairs, and connects the three middle toes more closely with each other than with the outer and inner toes, which are consequently cajiable of more independent movement. The male Duck-moles have a movable spur on the hind legs attached to a promi- nence on the ankle-bone (Fig. 2), and this is perforated by a canal which passes down through tlie muscles of tlie thigh from a gland situated superficially in the loins. Cases are well authenticated in wliicli wounds caused by the sjiur h.ave occasioned very serious symptoms, but it is noticed that the natives liamlle the annuals without any hesitation, and it is cei'tain that attemjits made to cause both Duck-mole and Ant- MONOTREMES. 13 eater to iiiHict a wound have been unsuccessful. It is probable that the spur is not so mucli an organ of defence, as of offence during the breeding season, for males have been caught at this time with recent ulcerated wounds, rendering their skins valueless. On opening the mouth of the Duck-mole the internal surface of the lower lip is seen to be transversely ridged in a manner somewhat similar to the inner surface of a duck's bill, and obviously serves the same purpose of strainmg off the excess of water from the particles of food collected. Each jaw is furnished with four horny teeth, of which the two situated farthest for-ward are long, narrow ridges, ^\'h\\e the others resemble in their position and shape the gi'inding teeth of other mammals. The tongue is also partly covered with rough, horny spines, and has a projection towards its hinder part which serves to direct the food collected into two lai-ge chcek-jiouchcs. The skeleton of the Duck-mole is remarkable for the constitution and strength of the girdle of bones which connect the fore-limbs with the trunk, and also for the size of the prominences on the limb-bones which serve for the attachment for the strong digging muscles. The burrows which the strong hmbs and claws tlius enable the animal to form have been recently carefully studied by Mr. G. F. Bennett, while endeavoring to secure further information as to the condition in which the young are deposited. A little above or below the ordinary water-mark of the streams and ponds in which the Fk;. 2. — Skeleton of Duck-mole. Duck-mole lives are to be seen holes four inches wide, leading into long serpentine passages of somewhat gi-eater diameter, which usually ascend steeply up the banks and terminate in a chamber often as much as twenty feet above tlie water-level. In such a chamber (a foot and a half long by a foot wide) the Duck-mole constructs for her yoiuig a nest of dried grass and gum-tree {Eucalyptus) leaves, and the high situation of the nest secures the safety of the young even in the highest Hoods. Secondary chambers nearer the water are probably formed as temporary resting-places for the mother while constructing her burrow. Mr. A. B. Crowther has recently communicated to the Royal Society of Tasmania some interesting observations on the habits of the Duck-mole. He succeeded in keep- ing a young one for three months ; it was fed on worms and pieces of fish, the former being taken so greedily that it is reasonable to suppose that they constitute part of the natural food of the animal. The contents of the cheek-pouches of the freshly-shot ani- mals, however, are mostly fresh-water shrimps, watcr-iJeas, and beetles. The hard chitinous coats of the latter are not rejected, but ground into a fine powder, and swal- lowed with the rest of the food. " For the most part their food is taken under water ; they turn over the sand and small stones at the bottom with their powerful bills, and collect in this manner in their cheek-pouches whatever they discover ; then they rise to the surface and triturate their food before swallowing it. This trituration is iiiilicated by a slight lateral movement of the jaws." 14 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. The time during wliieli the creatures remain under water, from one to five or six minutes, depends upon the supply of food ; if this be plentiful they rise rai)idly to the surface. It is obvious that the cheek-pouches must be very serviceable in view of the fact that the food lias to be triturated, and that the animal requires to rise frequently to the surface to breathe. In swimming the forepaws are widely expanded and convex forwards, the animals ])ropelling themselves chiefly by these. When diving the head is rapidly thrown be- neath the body, the front paws quickly moving until the bottom is arrived at, the tail tui-nino; from side to side as a rudder. Fig. 3. — Echidna hystrix, Porcupine Ant-eater. On land the web of the front paws is doubled into the palm, the claws being thus left free for burrowing, in which they are the chief agents. " They soon become very tame in captivity ; in a few days the young ones appeared to recognize a call, swimming rapidly to the hand paddling the water ; and it is curious to see their attempts to procure a worm enclosed in the hand, which they greedily take when offered to them. I have noticed that they appear to be able to smell whetlier or not a worm is contained in the closed hand to which they swim, for they desisted from their efforts if an empty fist were offered. Although so tame they refuse any handling, especially on touching the bill and tail ; not so, howevc)-, with the side, which they a])pear to like scratched, turning over and coming back several times to have the operation repeated." "•The young ones I could safely permit to run about the room, but the old one scratched so incessantly at the wall that I had to shut it up. Then it lay quietly througliout the day, but on the approach of night it renewed its struggles for freedom. If I startled the aninuils from their sleep it invariably produced a general growling or murmurinij'." MONOTREMES. 15 The Porcupine Ant-eater, a native of New South Wales and West Australia, owes its common name to its habits and to the stout spines ■ff'ith which the whole of the upper surface of the body is covered. Like the ant-eaters of South America, the snout and tongue are very long, and this resemblance induced Dr. Shaw to describe the Austrahan animal under the same generic name (MyrmecophagcC). This was altered by Cuvier, however, to Echidna (the Greek word for viper), on the supposition that the spur of the males is capable of inflicting a poisoned wound. He associated with this the specific name hi/strix (a porcupine), and under this scientific name, or a similar one {E. aciileata), the animal is still described. As the term Echidna is also employed for a kind of snake, many zoologists prefer for the ant-eater the name Tachijglossus acideattis, which was formed in reference to the rapid motion of the slender tongue while collecting the insects which constitute the food of the animal. If we compare the ant-eater with the duck-mole, we find that the differences are such as are to be attributed to the totally different mode of life of the two annuals. In one habit they agree, — that of burrowing, — and the skeleton of the ant-eater presents the same robustness as we find in the duck-mole. But we miss the webbed feet, the smooth coat, and the odd bill of the duck-mole, and find them replaced by structures more suitable to the terrestrial habits, and to the mode of feeding of the ant-eater. In size Fig. 4. — Skeleton of &/jjd)io. the ant-eater is considerably smaller — not more than a foot in length — the tail is rudi- mentary, being concealed by the fur and spines, while the slender, naked snout measures an } ch and a half in length, and decreases from a width of three-fourths of an inch at the \ ise to less than half an inch at the tip. The general color is dark-brown : the spinis, almost three inches long, which cover the upper surface of the body, are dirty white, tipped with black, and tlie rest of the surface, excejit the muzzle, is covered with coarse brown hair. As in the duck-mole, the anterior Hmbs are more powerful ; the toes are armed with thick nails, which are of service in digging up the earth in search of food. The hind-feet rest chiefly on the inner side, in such a way as to raise from contact with the ground and preserve from wear the claws of the outer four toes. These are employed in throwing aside the earth dug out by the fore-feet, and their ]iosition in rest, with their concave surfaces turned outwards, shows that they are admirably adapted for this purpose. The claw of the second toe is especially long, while the inner or great toe is itself very short, and is only armed with a flat nail. The aj^erture of the mouth is very different from that of the duck-mole, — being confined to the tip of the snout, and serving merely to give egress to the tongue. In accord- ance with the ant-eating habits of the animal, this organ is long and very protractile : the salivary glands, especially that situated below the floor of the mouth (submaxillary), are much enlarged and pour out on to the tongue a viscid secretion which serves to attach to it the insects with which it conies in contact. The ant-eater has neither teeth nor 16 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. cheek-pouches, but both the tongue and root' of the mouth have horny spines, between which the insects are crushed before being swallowed. Having now described the ajipearance and liabits of the two typical and best-known species, a short reference to tlie others, with some account of theu- systematic relation- ships, may suffice. The order Monoti'emata is divided by zoologists into two families : the OENiTHOEHYNCHiDiE with the sole species described above, and the Tachyglossid^ with four known Sf)ecies. One of these seem to differ little from the E. hystrix, except in its greater length and in the gi-eater development of its fur, which almost conceal the spines. It is known as Echidna setosa, and is a native of Tasmania. It is possible that it is only a local variety of the other, depending on climatal conditions; but within the last two or three years our knowledge of the family has been increased by the discovery of two additional species, both from the comparatively little-known island of Papua or New Guinea. Except a peculiar form of wild pig, no mammals were known to occur on this island other than pouched forms similar to those inhabit- ing the neighboring Australian continent. It is not too much to anticipate that science will be still further enriched by the explorations of this interesting region now in progress. One of the species referred to Avas brought from Port Moresby, in "West Guinea, and named Echidna lawesi, while the second {EcJddna [ Tacky glossus] bruijni) was first established by Prof. Peters on a skull acquired for the museum at Genoa, by the Marquis of Doria. M. Paul Gervais has, however, recently had the opportunity of studying two entire spechnens of the latter, procured for him with the assistance of M. Bruijn, of Ternate, and finds such important points of difference from the Australian forms that he proposes a new genus {Acanthoglossus) for the reception of this species. It appeal's tliat the natives hunt these JVodiaks high up in the Arfak mountains, dislodging them by the aid of dogs from the deep burrows in which they live. Besides being more robust than the Australian ant-eater, the Nodiak has blackish fur with white spines, and only three toes to each foot, while its snout and tongue are three times as long, and the latter organ, instead of being smooth towards the tip, is provided with three rows of horny sjsines, to which the animal is indebted for its new generic name. Foremost among the anatomical peculiarities which the Monotremes possess in common with other Mammalia, must be mentioned the mammary glands which supply the milk for the nourishment of the helpless young. The reason that these structures did not at first attract the attention of naturalists is to be sought for in the fact that they are of large size only during the breeding season, and rapidly disappear after thek function has been discharged, as well as in the fact of the total absence of any nipple or teat. In tlie duck-mole the glands, which are situated on the belly just in front of the hind-legs, open by very numerous, close-set apertures on the surface of the skin among the hairs. The apertures, which are little larger than those through which the hairs emerge, occupy an oval spot fiAe lines bj- three lines in diameter, and Owen's researches have determined that the young duck-mole's mouth is specially adapted to avail itself of the milk that escapes upon this surface, the bill being short, flexible, and sensitive, while the broad tongue is advanced to the front of the mouth. The young of the echidna also possess this peculiarity, the face being proportion- ately very much shorter than in the adult. Simultaneously with the increase in size of the milk-glands in the echidna, however, the surfaces on Avhich they open become turned in so as to form two little pouches, which are only sufficiently large to contain the newly-born young, but A\'hich nevertlieless foreshadow the larger skin-poucheB in MONOTREMES. 17 \ which the young of the kangaroos and similar marsupial animals are nursed for a long time. The presence of mammary glands, however, is only one of numerous structural points wliich associate the monotremes with the rest of the Mammalia. Even in features which seem most to recall the birds and reptiles, we find on closer examination that the intimate structtire is decidedly more like that of the higher animals. A striking instance of this is the cochlea of the internal ear, which is spirally coiled in mammals, but simply curved in reptiles, birds, and monotremes; yet in spite of this agreement in form, the internal arrangement of the cochlea is distinctly mammalian in the duck- mole, and not like that in reptiles and birds. So with the chain of small bones in the cavity of the drum of the ear: as in all mammals, these are three in number, whereas in reptUes and birds only one is present, and the bones corresponding to the other two enter into the formation of the joints of the jaws. A curious approximation to the reptiles and birds, however, is afforded by the monotremes in the form of that ear-bone wliich is common to the three great groujis; for, instead of being stirrup-sliaped, as in other mammals, it is column-shaped, as in the reptUes and birds. One of the most remarkable of these anatomical peculiarities which the monotremes share with certain lower vertebrata is tlie structure of the girdle of bones connecting the fore-limbs with the trunk. In man the shoulder-blade (scapula) is not connected with the trunk, except indi- rectly by means of the collar-bone (clavicle), which runs between the acromial projection from the scapula to the upper end of the breast-bone (sternum). Now, in the monotremes the clavicles are supported along their whole length by the transverse arras of a T-shaped interclavicle, the perpendicular part of the T being a broad plate which joins tlie breastbone behind. The gi-eater solidity thus produced is increased by the fact that the small curved projection which we know as the coracoid process in the shoulder-blade of man, is in the monotremes an independent bone of considerable strength, which not only forms part of the shoulder-joint, but also is directly connected witli the sternum. Both intercla\'icle and distinct coracoids are peculiarities inlierited from reptilian ancestors, which are almost lost in the higher members of the mam- malian sei'ies. Again, the structure of the reproductive organs already referred to is another reminder of the reptilian affinities of the monotremes and of the low position whicli they would be allotted in a genealogical tree of the mammals. In spite of sucli pronounced affinities with the lower classes of vertebrates, a great gap exists between any existing reptiles and these lowest mammals. So fragmentary is the record which fossils yield us of the forms which have lived in past geological ages, that we are unable to jjoint to any group of fossil or living reptiles as near relatives of the monotremes. The only remains that have been found are of com- paratively recent origin, and point to the former existence of gigantic ant-eaters on the Australian continent. It is to be hoped that continued researches may yet reveal further links in the chain of forms which connected the earliest mammals that appeared on the earth's surface with the reptiles of geological ages further back. It is improb- able enough that these earliest milk-givers shared the peculiar external appearance and habits of either the duck-mole or ant-eater of the present day ; but it is certain tliat they must have resembled these animals in the more imjiortant peculiarities of the skeleton, to which attention has been drawn, as well as in the rudimentary condition of the milk-glands, and the mode in which the young are brought fortli. This last VOL. v. — 2 18 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. point is of so great interest, from a zoological point of view, that it appears desirable to describe, at some length, the present state of our knowledge on the subject. As already indicated, the structure of the reproductive organs of the Monotreraata is sufficiently different from that found in other mammalia to warrant the formation of a special sub- class for their reception. Naturalists have consequently exerted themselves to discover the physiological conditions determined by these structural peculiarities, to find out, in fact, the condition in which the young are born, and the arrangements for nursing them. For most of our information on this subject we are indebted to the veteran English anatomist, Owen, who by his personal investigations, and with the aid of Aus- tralian correspondents, has done much to clear up this very obscure subject. The breeding-time of the monotremes is in the months of August, September, and October. The testes of the males (which, unlike the same organs in the higher mam- malia, retain the position in front of the kidneys where they are developed), are at this time much increased in size, — from the size of a pea to that of a pigeon's egg, — while eggs in various stages of development have been found in the females in these months. In the higher mammalia the egg as it leaves the ovary is on an average only j J^ of an inch in diameter, irrespective of the size of the animal. Increase in size only takes place concomitantly with the process of cleavage and development of the egg. In the mono- tremes, however, the ovarian eggs are more than ten times as large to begin with, and attain in the oviduct a diameter of a quarter of an inch before the first steps of develop- ment take place. As in reptiles and birds there is no connection whatever between the eggs and the oviduct, which can afford nutrition to the embryo, and the larger size of the eggs is simply attributable to the presence of a larger amount of food-yolk which renders the embryo independent of such nutrition. How long the process of develop- ment within the mother lasts is uncertain, but it is ascertained that the eggs, of which the envelope is flexible and white, attain the size of a crow's before the envelope is broken. Whether this rupture is effected within or without the mother [i. e. whether the mother is viviparous or ovo-viviparous] is so far unknown, but it is of interest to note that a provisional knob exists on the nose of the youngest progeny discovered com- parable to that by the agency of which a chick breaks its shell. Such very young specimens have been secured, both of the duck-mole and of the ant-eater, measuring about two inches in length. They resemble each other in the absence of any hairs, and in their reddish color, due to the vessels shining through the very thin skin ; but the habits of the parents are so entirely different that we have to expect some difference in the provisions made for the care of such helpless little creatures. The nest which the duck-mole constructs for her young has been already described. In such they are found to the number of two or three, and it is probable that they remain there for six or eight weeks, entirely nourished by the milk of the parent until they have acquired a hairy covering and have attained the length of six or eight inches. The porcupine ant-eater on the other hand carries its young about with it in a pair of i^ouches on the under surface of the abdomen, which are no more than two inches in diameter, and whose openings (concealed by the hair of the region) look towards each other. At the bottom of these pouches, which are not present except in females with young, are the numerous (fifty) orifices of the milk-ducts, opening simply on the smooth surface of the skin. It is obvious th.nt although such a pouch may serve to contain the recently-born echidna, its dimensions will soon be inadequate for it, and accordingly we hear of MONOTREMES. I9 specimens being caught with the young clinging by means of its claws to the hair of the mother, only the head being concealed in the pouch. Such a provision for carrying about the young would be out of place in the aquatic duck-mole, which may remain entirely under water for seven or eight minutes, and at any rate only pushes its nostrils up to the surface for breathing. However small the size and temporary the character of the ant-eater's pouch, it is, nevertheless, a structure of peculiar interest in view of the fact that the other quadrupeds of the Australian region are all of them possessed of a similar though more developed receptacle for the young. We are led by its study to the conclusion that the pouched mammals, the description of which we are next to take up, must in the course of their development from lower forms have passed through a stage in which the pouch was of very much the same character as in the porcupme ant-eater. R. Ramsay Weight. 20 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. Sub-Class II. — Didelphia. Order I. — MARSUPIALIA. As has been already observed in describing the manner in which the Poi-cupine Ant-eater carries about her young, the quadrupeds of the Australian region are, for the most part, possessed of a well-developed fold of skin round the region on which the milk-glands open, which constitutes the pouch or marsupium from which the ordinal name "Marsupialia" is derived. If this were the only peculiarity of the groujj, it would hardly deserve to be set aside from the others except as an order ; but the i:(ouch is associated with, and indeed is necessitated by, certain peculiarities of the reproductive system which are of deep anatomical significance, and consequently naturalists agree in assigning to the order also the rank of a sub-class (Didelphia), equal in value on the one hand to the Ornitho- delphia (Monotremes), and on the other to the Monodelphia (the higher orders of mammals). The group, however, as we shall afterwards show in detail, is by no means to be regarded as exactly intermediate between the two other sub-classes, but the exist- ing members of it are rather to be considered as extremely modified descendants of such an intermediate group. One of the most interesting points in connection with this order is the contrast between its extremely limited geographical distribution at the present time and in past geological ages, as shown by fossil marsupial remains all over the world. Another of great interest to the evolutionist is the study of the relation of the various families to each other, and to fossil forms — a study which discloses perhaps better than anywhere else in the animal kingdom the influence of different habits of life in bringing about extreme modifications of external form without affecting essential anatomical characters. Again, in such a study we are led to contemplate the superficial resemblances induced by similar habits, by comparing the herbivorous, carnivorous, and insectivorous quadrupeds of the rest of the world with those representative forms which discharge the same functions in nature's economy in Australia. A glance at the map of the world will show the very curious distril)ution of existing marsupials. All the families but one have their home in the Australian region ; that is, either on the continent of Australia, the Island of Tasmania to the south, that of Papua or New Guinea to the north, that of Celebes to the northwest, or, finally, on the small islands which lie to the east and west of Papua. The remaining family (the opossums) is confined to South America and the southern parts of North America. Tliis char- acteristic difference between the Australian and American marsupials extends also to the fossil forms found in these regions, for the earliest marsupial remains which ha'\-o been detected in both countries are distinctly allied to the existing Fauna. As we shall see further on when discussing the remains of extinct marsupials, it will be necessary to go very far back in the series of fossiliferous rocks before we can hope to find remains of the common ancestors of the American and Australian forms. Researches in the earliest secondary rocks may yet till the gap. Before discussing the natural history of the various families, a short sketch of the anatomical features common to all may be of service. MARSUPIALS. 21 In none of the orders of the liigher mammalia do we find, such wide limits as to the size of the body, for the order includes kangaroos as tall as a man, and little mouse-like creatures of dwarf projjortions. The fur is in most cases long and soft, its coloring rarely very marked, and often very sober. In the structui-e of the skeleton the mar- supials are rather allied to the higher riiammals than to the monotremes, for the jjcculiarities mentioned above as to the ear-bones and shoulder-girdle of the monotremes are here replaced by arrangements entirely similar to those in other quadruj)eds. The pelvic gii'dle, however, shares a marked peculiarity with the monotremes — the posses- sion of well-developed epipubic bones jutting out in a forward direction from the jHibes. The function of these structures will be discussed later on. The lower jaw is always characterized by the inflection of the angle, a peculiarity which has assisted in the recognition of the marsupial character of the earliest fossil mammalian remains, which almost invariably consist of lower jaws. The number of bones in the vertebral column is remarkably constant, except in the caudal region : we shall find that some forms have a well-developed tail, which may act as a sort of fifth leg, as in the kangaroos, or be used in climbing (Phalangers), while in others that organ is more or less rudimentary (Wombat, Koala). The relative length of the fore and hind limbs is very different in the different groups — the difference is especially striking in the kangaroos, where the fore limbs are particularly short. The bones of the fore arm are distinct, and allow of a rotary motion, the one around the other ; the same is true of the bones of the hind legs in the climbing forms, but in the leaping forms such rotation is not possible. Of the toes of the hind feet, the inner one is sometimes opj)osable after the fashion of a thumb. This inner toe may be absent, or the second and third -next it may also disajDjsear or be much reduced. The brain of the marsupials is small, and consequently the cavity of the skull is relatively small as compared with the bones of the face. The surface of the brain is almost destitute of convolutions, and the two halves of the brain are less intimately joined by the corpus callosum, than is the case in the higher animals. By far the greater number of mammals have two sets of teeth, a milk-set and a permanent set, the latter, as age advances, successively displacing the former from below. In certain orders, however (Rodentia and Insectivora), some of the members have a more or less comjjlete milk-set, while in others the milk-teeth are wholly sup- pressed : there is no question but that the latter are the more modified forms. Now, in the marsupials we find that there are only four teeth (one molar on each side in each jaw), which have milk-predecessors, and from the above consideration we argue that these are merely vestiges of a full milk-set jjossessed by the ancestors of our existing marsupials, and regard the condition as one of the proofs that existing marsupials are very much modified rejiresentatives of that half-way stage of mammalian evolution for which Huxley has proposed the name Metatheria. As to the number and arrangement of the teeth, differences are to be ■ met with in this order of far more striking extent than in any of the higher orders. In by far the greater number of cases (except the wombat) the incisor teeth are unequal in number in the upper and lower jaw, and a great difference is observed to be associated with the character of the food. The vegetable-feeders, for instance, have teeth with constantly growing roots, like rabl)its, and tlie formula for these is \, f , or f on each side. In the insectivorous and carnivorous forms, on the other hand, where the roots do not thus increase, the formula is f , §, or |- on each side. Again, in the carnivorous forms the 22 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. canine teetli are well developed, whereas, in the vegetable-feeders they may be much reduced or absent. The premolars are double-f anged, and are usually § on each side ; the commonest formula for the true grinders is |-, but it may rise (in the banded ant- eater) to I, or fall in the flying phalanger to |. Tlie mode of succession of the teeth in the kangaroos is singular, for the hinder teeth eventually rejjlace, in function, those in front, which have become worn away — a peculiarity also met with Ln some of the higher hoofed animals. The stomach also varies in shape with the food, being simply oval or rounded in the carnivorous or insectivorous forms, while in the herbivorous kangaroos it is con- verted into a gut-like tube, sacculated like the colon, sometimes as long as the body, and occasionally provided, near the entrance of the gullet, with two blind sack-like ajipendages. The vent of the intestine opens independently behind the genito-urinary passage ; thus there is no cloaca, sucli as occurs in the monotremes ; at any rate, if present at all, it is very much reduced. In this respect the marsupials agi-ee with the higher mammals, for only in the females of a few forms is there any indication of a cloaca. The reproductive organs in both sexes present many jjeculiarities in then- structure which do not find a parallel in any of the higher orders of maumials. In the female they consist of two ovaries, two oviducts, two uteri, two vagiuse, which ojaen separately into the genito-urinary passage, and, in addition, in some forms there is also present a cul-de-sac, originally double, which originates from the vaginae where they com- municate with the uteri, and whicli is usually blind, but may communicate with the urogenital sinus (as in Bennett's kangaroo), forming there the so-called median vagina. The ovaries differ in size according to the number of young brought forth at a bu'th, being thus small in the kangaroos and large in the o])ossums. A similar difference is observed in the oviducts and uteri, which are short in the kangaroos and long in the opossums. The lateral vaginas are always more or less curved, and sometimes tor- tuous in their course. On the whole, the researches of Brass have shown that the opossum family is that which is nearest to the Ornithodelphia in the structure of the reproductive organs. The male reproductive organs exhibit some peculiarities not to be met with else- where in the mammalian series. The testes are no longer abdominal in position, but descend through an inguinal canal (which remains permanently open) into the scrotum, or pouch, which is situated in front instead of behind the penis. This organ may be simple or bifurcated at its exti-emity ; the former is the case in the larger kangaroos and other forms, where only one of the uteri is found to be pregnant at a time, the latter in the opossums, etc., where eggs from both ovaries are impregnated at the same time. The eggs of the marsupials agree in size with those of the liigher animals, the amount of yolk, however, is somewhat greater, and therefore in their structm-e they hold a ])Osition midway between those of the monotremes and the higher mammals. The time required for development of the embryo within the mother varies from twenty to foity days ; m all cases the young are born in a much less developed and more heljiless condition than is the case in any of the higher animals, although, as is well known, very different degrees of development may be obsft'ved even in nearly- related fomis of them. The nutrition of the foetus, while it is in the mother's womb, is effected in a dif- ferent way from that which is found in the higher animals. There the vessels of one of MARSUPIALS. 23 the foetal membranes, the allantois, come into very close relationship with the vessels in the lining membrane of the uterus ; here, on the other hand, there is no such allantoic placenta. That the fcetus is nourished while in the uterus is obvious, and it is prob- able that this is effected through vessels in the yolk-sac, wliich is of large size. It was suspected by some naturalists that the median vagina might serve to contain the embryo after its discharge from the uterus, but Pagenstecher's observations, taken together with those of Owen, point to the fact that no such dehiy occurs, and tliat the embryos, when born, are at once conveyed by aid of the mother's lips to the nipple, to which they are attached for a longer or shorter time. The milk-glands of the marsupials are much in advance of the state of development observed in the monotremes, being much more compact, and being further provided with teats. Their number bears a certain relation to the number of young which may be produced at a liirtli, being four in the kangaroos, wombat, koala, banded ant-eater, and thirteen in tlie Virginian opossum. They are, however, more numerous than the usual litter, for the young of two successive births may be suckled for a short time together. The teats are long and slender ; when the mother is not suckling, they are withdrawn within a sheatli. As already observed, the skin round the teats is raised into a fold, which gives rise to the characteristic pouch. The inner surface of the skin of the pouch is almost hairless, but is lubricated by tlie secretion of the sebaceous glands. The mouth of the pouch is generally directed forwards. In one or two forms, however, it opens backwards {Perameles, Chmropus). The aperture of the pouch can be closed at will by a strong skin muscle, the fibres of which are arranged round the margin of the apertui'e. In certain forms the pouch is rudimentary or absent, and it is probable that in these forms the young are further developed within the body of the mother than is the case with those in which it is a marked feature. Prof. Huxley remarks that the pouch is evidently a modification related to the abnormally early bii'th of the foetus, and he argues that this may liave been brought about by the arboreal habits of the early marsupials, in which it may have been "advan- tageous to get rid of the young from the interior of the body at as early a period of development as jwssible, and to supply them with nourishment during the later periods, through the lacteal glands, rather than through an imjierfect form of placenta." The most preposterous theories as to the mode of development of the kangaroos were at one time credited by the Australian colonists and even by naturalists. It was thought that the little young were formed at the end of the teat, and indeed the intimate connection which exists between the teat and the young readily explains such a popular conception. Now, however, ripe embryos have been discovei'ed in the uteri, and such have also been observed a few hours after their fixation to the teats. There appears to be no doubt that the transference of the young from the womb to the pouch is effected by the mother's lips, the fore-paws being only employed to hold the lips of the pouch widely open. Both transference and fixation are, however, difficult to observe, for the little embryo, hardly an inch long, is first concealed by the lips of the mother, and then more effectually so by the insertion of the mother's head into the liouch. Even in the largest member of the family, the giant kangaroo, the young, when born, are no larger tlian a newlj'-born mouse. It is interesting to comjiare the degree of development of the hind and fore legs at this stage. While in the fore feet the five fingers are distinctly formed, even to the tips of the claws, tlie hind feet are more like short fins, slightly notched into three lobes, the inner of wliicli is again perceptibly divided in correspondence with the structure of the adult foot. One of the most 24 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. remarkable features about the young kangaroo is the largely-develojied mouth and tongue ; by their aid the little creature is able to grasp the teat firmly, and in fact tlie orijice of the mouth may grow smaller after the teat has once been firmly secured in it. Tlie milk is injected into the gullet of the young, jjassing on each side of the upper end of the windpipe, -which is carried as far up as the hinder jjart of the nasal cavity. In this way the little creatures may breathe, and be fed at the same time, without danger of choking. The injection of the milk is effected by a specially modified part, the eremaster, of one of the superficial abdominal muscles. The epipubic, or so-called marsupial bones (they have nothing to do with the pouch), serve as a sort of pulley by which the eremaster muscles are enabled more effectively to compress the milk- glands. The duration of the poucli-life of the young varies with the species. The kangaroo, according to Owen, suckles her young for eiglit months. "During this period the hind legs and tail assume a great ])art of their adult proportions ; the muzzle elongates, the external ears and eyelids are completed, and the hair begins to develop about the sixth montli ; at tlie eighth, the young kangaroo may be seen frequently to protrude its head from the mouth of the pouch, and to crop the grass at the same time that the mother is browsing. Having thus acquired additional strength, it quits the pouch, and hojis at fii-st with a feeble and vacillating gait, but continues to return to the jioucli for occasional shelter and sup])lies of food, till it has attained the weight of ten pounds; after this it will occasionally insert its head for the purpose of sucking, notwithstand- ing another foetus may have been dejiosited in the pouch, for the latter attaches itself to a different nijiple from the one which had been used by its predecessor." In the summary of facts as to the ])arturition of the marsupials, special reference has been made to the kanganjos, for more attention has l)een devoted to the phenom- enon in this family than in any otlier. When discussing the natural history of the various genera, we shall have occasion to refer to any differences which have been observed to be characteristic of these. Attention has already been attracted to the fact that of all the marsujiials, the opos- sum approaches the typical mammal most closely in the structure of its reproductive organs. Again, the family to which it belongs is one which is represented amongst the earliest mammalian fossils, whilst the families of the Australian marsupials (as fossils show) are of comparatively recent origin. These circumstances, along with the i-emark- able geographical isolation of the family from the other members of the order, induce us to describe its members first. A further reason for doing so is afforded by the familiarity of one of the species, the common Virginian opossum, Didelphi/s virginiana. The family Didelphid^e in- cludes all the American marsu- pials ; most of them are about tlie size of a rat, and they rarely attain the size of a cat. They feed chiefly on insects, Init small re])tiles, bii'ds, and eggs are not despised. Two genera are recognized, one, the water opossum ( (7iirO»ecfes), dift'ers entirely in its habits from the other, and has webbed feet (whence its generic name), in adaptation to its mode of life. Ftg. 5. — Pelvis of opossum, with epipubic bone. MARSUPIALS. 26 All the other species belong to the genus Didelphys, and are arboreal, and more or less nocturnal in their habits. Some of these are iiro\ided with a ijoucli, others are destitute of it. In all the teeth are arranged according to the following formula : — Incisors |, canines |, premolars % molars |. Of the grinders, the premolars are two- fanged, the molars three-fanged ; in accordance with their food their sui-face is provided with sharp cusps. The feet are five-toed, naked on the under surface, the inner toe of the hind foot is opposable, hke a thumb, and is destitute of the short claw which all the other toes possess. The tail is long and naked, except towards the base, where it is covered with fur like the rest of the body. In the opossums, as in some others of the marsupials (e. g. Dasyurus ursinus), the occipital through life persists as four bones, the sutures between them never being obliterated. The gape of the mouth is very large, extending back as far as the outer angle of the eye. Bristles are few in number, but those on the nostrils and lips are very long. In some species of the genus the mammae are contained in a well- formed pouch, but in others the pouch is represented by two cutaneous folds of the abdomen, the mamma lying between them. Fig. 6. — Didelphys vlrginkcna. Common opossum. The Virginian opossum {Didelphys virginiana). Fig. 6, belongs to the group with a well-developed pouch, and is indeed one of the largest forms, approaching in size the common cat. Its woolly fur is for the most pai-t dirty yellowish, but, especially in younger animals, the tips of the hairs on the back are brownish or blackish ; inter- mingled with these are larger whitish hairs. The tail is scaly, like a rat's, except at the root. The head is much larger in proportion to the rest of the body, but this is largely due to the elongated snout, for the brain-case, and consequently its contents, are of small size, and of a very low grade of develoiiment. The sense of smell apjjears, however, to be well developed, and also that of sight. The ears are naked, black in color, and resemble in texture a bat's wing. 26 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. The opossum brings forth a Htter corresponding more or less nearly to the number of her teats. These are thirteen, disposed in a circle, six on each side and one in the middle. Except during the pairing season, the opossum leads a solitary life ; then, however, it constructs a nest of dried grass for itself in the hollow or at the root of a tree, and this is shared by the young when they are sufficiently old to leave the pouch. The developmental changes which take place within the body of the mother Fig. 7. — SkuU of opossum. occupy from twenty-four to twenty-eight days. The young are then born in a perfectly helpless condition, and only about half an inch in length : they are immediately placed in the pouch by the mother ; one being attached to each of the long teats. The mouth at this stage is well formed, and the fore limbs much further advanced than the hind, for the young are enabled to cling to the teat partly by means of the fore claws, while the similar structures of the hind limbs are only afterwards developed. After attach- ment, the corners of the mouth grow up round the teat, insuring a more perfect channel for tlie flow of the milk; this is further aided by a well-marked groove on the upper surface of the tongue. The milk is prevented from getting into the lungs by the same ar- rangement of the wind- pipe described above in connection with the kangaroo. An interesting fact in view of the occur- rence of a well-marked pouch in the male Thy- lacinus, to be after- wards referred to, is that the young male and female ojiossum, when first born, can hardly be distinguished, as far as the nipples and pouch are con- cerned. In both sexes a cluster of little conical elevations (the future teats) are to be observed, surrounded by a low circular ridge of skin, which afterwards gi'ows in over the teats to constitute the pouch. The pouch and nipples of the male soon cease to be develof)ed, and are hardly to be traced in the adult. During the first fortnight after bii-th the opossum keeps its pouch obstinately closed. In another three or four weeks, the little oiwssuras have attained the size of mice, but do not leave the ]iouch entirely until after two months or so of suckling. Even when they are able to run about they are still cared for by the mother. Lower jaw of opossum, showing inflected angle. MARSUPIALS. 27 In captivity the opossum is not attractive ; it sleeps the greater part of the day, and is witli difficulty roused to any active movements. Until recently two Californian species have been accepted as different from the common opossum, and were first described by Bennett from specimens in the Zoological Gardens in London, under the names D. californica, and D. hreviceps. We learn from Dr. Elliott Coues, however, that these so-called species are not entitled to that rank, but have been merely formed from specimens varying from the average in color and other particulars. He contends that the opossum is very variable, that such variations depend largely upon age and sex, and that there are no characters cited for these species which cannot be found in .specimens of D. virginiana from the same locality. Age is a great factor in color-variation ; half-grown animals, at a little distance, look blackish; old ones, whitish. The paws may differ much in color; generally they are among the darkest piarts, but may occasionally be as pale as the rest of the body. Such variation is not only skin-deep, but may affect materially the form and measure- ments of the skull. It is probable that the ^'nrinliility which has been established for the Virginian opossum is also characteristic of other species, and consequently that the long list of Brazilian sjjecies which have been described may be -susceptible of considerable reduction. The other pouched species of ojiossum h.ave their home chiefly in Brazil, whence some of them ha\'e extended into neighboring pro\'inces. Smaller in .size than the Virginian species, they appear to resemble it closely in their habits. Such are the D. quica, D. opossum (of the size of a squirrel), D. pJiilaiider, and D. cancrivora. The last-mentioned prefers swampy situations, and, as its name indicates, lives largely on ci'abs. These, however, do not form its sole food, for like the other species small birds and reptiles are likewise preyed on. The remaining species of the genus are characterized by the absence or rudimentary character of the pouch. The young are born, however, in practically the same condi- tion. After they are old enough to leave the teats they are carried on the back of the mother, being securely fastened there by means of their prehensile tails, which are twined round the tail of the mother. This peculiarity has given the name of D. dorsigera to the species from Surinam, in which it was first observed; but it is also shared by other members of the section. In size and coloring this opossum resembles the brown rat. Some of the nearly-related forms, D. nnirbia, elegans, etc., are smaller (the latter being about the size of a mouse) ; but most of them agree in being deadly enemies to the smaller birds. On the other hand, some of the Peruvian forms {D. impavida and noctivaga) seem to live almost entirely on the fruit of the banana and other trees. The water-opossum ( Chironectes variegatus) referred to above is a native of Guiana and Brazil, is provided with a perfect pouch ; its hind feet are large and webbed, in adaptation to its aquatic habits. The Yapiock, as it is named by the natives, is so otter-like in its habits, although of considerably smaller size, that it was long classed with the carnivorous animals. Its chief food is formed of small fish, crustaceans, and other aquatic animals. After securing these the j'apoek stows them temporarily in large cheek-pouches. Only five or six young are born in a single lit*ff' ; like similar aquatic forms, the yapocks live in holes, to which they retire in danger. Specimens are difficult to secure, as they are excellent divers, and it is only occasionally that they are taken by jiccident in eel-pots. i 28 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. The remaining families of marsupials are all Australian; some of them, like the opossums, are arboreal forms', others are completely terrestrial in their habits. Krefft believes that all of the forms were derived from ancestors possessing a combination of the carnivorous and herbi\-orous dentition which we now find only in separate groups, and thinks that in the course of evolution one line of development resulted in those living forms which have two conjoined inner toes (the wombats, phalangers, bandicoots, kangaroos, and kangaroo-rats), while the other culminated in tliose of truly carnivorous habit which have the toes free (the Tasmanian devil, banded ant-eater, Tasmanian woli, pouched mice, etc.). There is every reason to regard the native bear, or Koala, as that Fig. 'J. — Phascolomr/s u'ombat and /*. Intifrons. Conininn and broad-fronted Wombats. which among living forms approaches tliis early tyjie most closely. The most natm-nl way of ari'anging the families would be that which would express, as far as possible, the probable lines of development, but it will be moi-e convenient to describe in the first ]ilace the wombats, for they, although undoubtedly related to the phalangers, possess, neverthelesfs, certain peculiarities (the result of their different mode of life) which isolate them from the other forms in a natural system. The wombats constitute the second family of the marsujiials (Phascolgiiyid.k) with only a single genus, Phascolomys, and but three living species. The commonest of these, the wombat of the natives, and badger of the Australian colonists {P. wombat). MARSUPIALS. 29 Fig. 9, lias a pretty wide geogrnpliical distribution, being found in Now South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania. It resembles the other species entirely in its habits, so that one description will apply to all. The body is little more than two feet in length, the tail rudimentary, the neck short and thick, and the head disproportionately large. The legs are short, stout, and well adapted for the burrowing iiabits of the animal, for the toes are armed with stout, curved claws, except in the case of the innermost toe of the hind feet, \A'hieh, unlike the arboreal forms, is unarmed. The hind feet are further adapted for InuTowing, by being strongly concave on the under surface. The animals live chiefly on roots, which they gnaw after the fashion of rodents ; and the inspection of the skull and teeth discloses a very strong sujjerficial resemblance to those of a beaver, attributable entirely to the effect which the strong gnawing muscles have on the shape of the skull, and the necessity for the constant growth of the teeth from the roots to replace what is worn away. The incisor teeth, shaped like curved chisels, are tw'o in tlie upj^er jaw and two in the lower. They are separated by a wide gap from the molar teeth, a circumstance which increases the resemblance of the skull to a beaver's. The grinders are 4, also rootless, the foremost of the series being a premolar, and of only half the size of the true molars. The gait of the wombat is a clumsy shuffling, like that of a bear, but it is nevertheless able to get over considerable tracts of ground quickly, proceeding, despite of every obstacle, with untiring patience. Brehni narrates how in the course of its nightly wanderings it frequently rolls over into the bed of a stream, l)ut pursues the direction once taken with the utmost obstinacy till terra firma is once more reached. Wombats are easily caught alive and kej)t in captivity. They appear to be quite indifferent to their keepers, however, and seem to care for nothing but their food. They are with difliculty roused out of their ox'dinary good nature or indifference, but are said to be able to take care of themselves with their chisel-like teeth if once excited. In addition to the ordinary wombat two other species are recognized. One of these, T'. jjlati/rhinus, differs only in considerably greater size and in the yellowish-brown color of the fur, but the second, the hairy-nosed, or broad-fronted wombat, P. latifrons. is readily distinguished from either by the silky character of the fur, by the hairy muffle, by the greater curvature of the incisors (they form almost a semi-circle), and by the fact that the enamelled surface of these is directed forwards instead of outwards. It is occasionally regarded as forming a separate sub-genus, Laaiorhinus. Com- paratively gigantic wombat remains have been found in recent bone-caves in Australia. Fig. lu. — Skeleton of Wombat. The third famil}-, Pii.v.scolaectidjs, embraces only the singular koala {Phasco- larctus cinereus), the native bear or native sloth of the colonists of New South Wales. It has occasionally been confounded with the Mombat described above, probably on account of the fact that the natives also occasionally use the same name for it. The common names, native sloth and native Ijear, applied to the koala, are both of them justified by peculiarities in appearance and gait of the creature. A truly arboreal 30 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. form, its feet are adapted for clasping the brandies of trees ; this is rendered possible by the long curved claws, and notably by the circumstance that in tlie fore foot the two inner toes are opposed to the three outer, wliile in the hind foot the nailless innermost toe serves as a "thumb." These peculiarities result in a very awkward gait upon the ground, to which, however, the koala rarely descerids. The thick-set, short body, the short snout, and large head are somewhat bear-like, peculiarities which find expression in both the common and scientific names. The general color of the fur, which is veiy thick and woollj-, is grayish, but paler, and sometimes yellowish-white on the under parts. The ears, which are blackish in Fig. 11. — Phascolarctus cinereus, native Bear, koala. color, are particularly hairy. The \'ery rudimentary condition of the tail helps to increase the singular appearance of the creature. Anatomically, the koala is most nearly related to the next family, that of the phalangers, but to a certain extent it occupies an isolated position, and may rather be regarded as the sole survivor of a family which was more abundantly represented in past times. The short, thick head produces a certain superficial resemblance between the koala's skull and that of the true wombat, but the teeth are very different ; the formula for the koala being i ^, c I, p \, m |. The koalas live on the leaves and shoots of the young trees on which they climb. The female is much attached to its young ; only one is born at a time, and the little one is carried about on the mother's shoulders long after it is able to leave the pouch. The Australian bear was first known to Eurojicans in 1803, and received its scien- tific name, which signifies ashy pouched bear, from De Blaiinalle. The Australians call it goribun, and have always considered it a valuable animal of the chase. They follow it to the tops of the highest trees, sometimes sixty or seventy feet from the MARSUPIALS. 31 ground, climbing with an agility that -would do credit to any ajie or monkey, drive it out on some slender limb, and then either despatch it with a club, or shake it off, the fall either kUling or disabling it. The fourth family, the Phalangers (PnALANGiSTiD^E), embraces certain arboreal forms for the most part small in size, some of ^\•hich are aided in leaping from tree to tree by the presence of a lateral fold of skin of greater or less extent. They are thus divided into ordinary and flying phalangers. Two genera are usually recognized, Phalancjista and Petaurus, but each of these is again subdivided into a number of sub-genera. All of the forms agree in the possession of a long pi-ehensile tail. Many of them live on young shoots, leaves, and blossoms of the trees they inhabit, while others are insectivorous. The incisor teeth are si.x in number in the upper jaw and two in the lower, the canines are one on each side in each jaw, the molars four on each side in each jaw, but the premolars, which intervene between the incisors and the true molars, are small and not constant in their number. The first section of the family embraces four or five sub-genera. Of these Ciiscus is distributed through all the smaller islands of the Australian group, and one species has lately also been found in New Guinea. Wallace describes these forms as opossum-like animals, with jirehensile tail, of which the terminal half is generally bare. Tliey have small heads, large eyes, and a dense covering of woolly fur, which is often pure white, with irregular black spots or blotches, or sometimes ashy brown with or without spots. They live in trees, feeding upon the leaves, of which they devour large quantities. They move about slowly, and are difficult to kill owing to the thickness of their fur and their tenacity of life. A heavy charge of shot will often lodge in the skin and do them no harm, and even breaking the spine or piercing the brain will not kill them for hours. The natives everywhere eat their flesh,- and, as their motions are so slow, easily catch them by climbing; so that it is wonderful they have not been exterminated. It may be, however, that their dense woolly fur protects them from birds of prey, and the islands they live in are too thinly inhabited for man to be able to exterminate them. They seem to be known by different names in the different islands. The size of most of the species is about that of a domestic cat. Among the best known species are C. ursinus, C. orientalis, C. rnaculatiis (which is also found in North Australia). C. vestitus (lately discovered witli the Acanthoglossus in the Karon Mountains of New Guinea), and others, discus orientalis, also named Valentyn's plialanger, is known as Kapoune to the natives of New Ireland ; Coes-coes to the natives of Amboyna. Lesson and Garnot state that they are much sought after by the natives for the flesh, which is very fat ; the animals are cooked entire by the natives over peat-coals. They emit a fetid odor, which renders their discovery easy, and their capture is said to be facilitated by the fact that when looked at steadfastly they suspend themselves by the tail and eventually drop to the ground from fatigue. The vulpine phalanger in its appearance and habits closely approaches the cuscus ; it differs, however, in the whole of the tail being hairy, at any rate upon the upper sur- face. This is referred to in its name, Trk/iosurus vulpinus. It has been described as combining the characters of a squirrel and a fox. Ordinarily its food is of a vegetable nature, and is lield between the fore jiaws in the same way that a squirrel or chipmunk eats an acorn. They may occasionalh', however, especially in captivity, eat animal food. The third sub-genus (Pseudochirus) embraces Cook's phalanger from New South Wales, and some species recently found in New Guinea (P. albertisii^ P. bernsteinii). 32 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. The fore feet are more distinctly adapted for arboreal purposes than in the other mem- bers of the genus ; for the two inner toes can -be opposed to the three outer ones, a " hand " resulting, in which not only the thumb, but also the index finger is opposa- ble to the others in the action of grasping boughs, etc. The females bring forth but two young at a time, and carry them for a long time in the marsupial pouch, and after that upon the back, until the little ones can take care of themselves. In captivity they are gentle, but are so senseless and stupid that they possess but little interest. They try to avoid observation as much as possible, burying themselves in the hay of their cages, and rolling themselves into a ball, the head being buried between the hind legs. The fourth sub-genus (Drotnicia) embraces certain very small forms, resembling in appearance and habits the dormice among the rodents. Instead of four they have only three true molai- teeth on either side of each jaw. The ears are almost naked, are pendant and crumpled in the living state. Waterhouse observed three or four specimens of the common Tasnianinn species living in the Zoological Gardens of Lon- FiG. 12. — TricJtosurus vulpinus. Vulpine Phalanger. don. The body is only about three or four inches long, the tail almost as much. The skin of the side of the body is attached to the legs as far as the wrist and ankle- joints, an arrangement which recalls the parachute of the next group. Although it is not so much developed, Gould observes (from the studj' of some specimens in captivity) " that the habits of the Dromicia are extremely like those of the dormouse. They feed on nuts and similar food, which they hold between their fore-paws. They are noctur- nal, remaining asleep during the whole day, or if disturbed not easily roused to a state of activity ; and coming forth late in the evening, and then assuming their natural rapid and vivacious habits, they run about a small tree which is placed in their cage, using their paws to hold by the br.anches, and assisting themselves by their prehensile tail, which is always held in readiness to sup])ort them, especially when in a descend- MARSUPIALS. 33 ing attitude. Sometimes the tail is thrown in the reverse direction, turned over the back, or at other times, when tlie weatlier is cold, it is rolled closely up towards the under part, coiled almost between the thighs. When eating, they sit upon their hind quarters, holding the food in their fore ])aws, which, with the face, are the only parts apparently standing out from the ball of fur, of wliich the body seems at that time to be composed. They are perfectly harmless and tame, permitting any one to hold and caress them without even attemjding to bite, but do not evince the least attachment either to persons about them or even to each other." In a natural state the Dromicia ajjpears to prefer the Jianksia trees, whose blos- soms furnish it with a never-failing supply of insects and honey. In addition to two Australian sjiecies, D. concinna and D. neiHii, we have recently been made acquainted with another larger form from the Arfak Mountains of New Guinea. Alphonse Milne Edwards has described this as D. caitdata. It attains the length of eleven or twelve inches, of which si.x belong to the tail. Tlie second section of this family embraces those forms which are provided with a lateral fold of the skin, the " parachute," extending between the fore and hind limbs, as in our flying-squirrels, and serving to jDrevent the too rapid descent of the creature in the long flying lea])s from tree to tree, which form their chief method of moving from place to jjlace. The generic name, Petaurus, is given to all of the members of the sec- tion, but several sub-genera are distinguished, of which Petaurista may be first con- sidered. The largest of the flying-phalangers, P. tagiianoides, of New South Wales, belongs to this division. The body is as much as twenty inches in length, and the tail even longer. Here the flank membrane only extends to the elbow-joint, and the ears are short, and co\'ered with hair. Like some of the smaller forms, this is much sought after as food by the natives, who surprise theni while asleejj in trees during the day, and seizing them by the tails, dash their brains out against the stem of the tree. Unless treated in this summary fashion, the phalanger is said to defend itself with teeth and claws in a very able manner. The genus Belideus is distinguished from the above by its long, naked ears, bushy tail, and by the fact that the parachute reaches as far as the outer finger. One of the most widely distributed species is the Belideus ariel of North Australia, which also extends into New Guinea, Batchian, and the Aru Islands, and is, perhaps, identical with the M. hreviceps of South Australia. This species and its congeners, such as B. sciureus, the sugar-squirrel of the colonists of New South Wales, possess a great superficial resemblance to the little flying-squirrels of our woods. The body is rarely more than six inches in length, whereas the tail may be more than twice as long. Such is the case in the Belideus flaviventer of New South Wales, which Bennett has had an ojjportunity of studying both in a state of nature and capti\ity. The fur of this little creature is exceedingly soft, and in color and texture reminds one of cliinchilla ; it is accordingly much valued by colonists. The flesh is prized as food by the natives, who drag the little creatures by tlieir tails from the forks and holes in the trees in which they sleep during the day. The Belideus is entirely arboreal, moving with an awkward Maddle upon the gi-ound, but leaping from tree to tree during the night with great alacrity. Very long leaps are effected by aid of the parachute ; these are always obliquely downwards, the little creature when pursued making its way to the higher branches of a tree and leajiing down to another alternately. It lives upon the honey of the gum-tree blossom, and also upon the tender shoots of these trees. A third genus of flying-phalangers embraces the very smallest of the marsupials, the VOL. V. — 3 34 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. Acrobata pyfjmmxis., or opossum mouse of New South Wales. It is about the size and color of a comuion mouse, inclining to yellowish white on tlie under part of the body. It is interesting to note that the teeth of this pigmy plialanger approach the insectivorous pattern. A form has been described by Prof. McCoy wJiich is allied to Uclideus, but differs from it in the absence of a parachute or flank membrane. It occurs in the "scrub" on the banks of the Bass River in Victoria. The generic name Gymnohelideus has been applied to it. Elevated to a distinct family by some zoologists, but by others associated ^ith the phalangers, is the very peculiar long-snouted Tarsipes ( T. i-ostrutns) from West Aus- FiG. 13. — BelUleus sciureuSf Sugar-Squirrel. tralia, of the general form and size of a mouse; its most obvious distinguishing features are the long, slender-pointed muzzle, and tlie three dai-k, longitudinal stripes in its gray fur. The tongue is also ^ery much elongated, and is employed for sucking honey from the flowers of various trees. The Tarsijies is also insectivorous ; in a minor degree, however, as the rudimentary condition of the teeth proves. These are not very small in size, and separated by gaps, but ai-e not constant in their number. The points in which the Tarsipes agrees with the phalangers are the prehensile tail, and the coalesced second and third toes. These toes ai'e armed with claws, but the fourth and fifth have only flat uails, a peculiarity in which Tarsipes approaches the Dromicia i-eferred to above. In the two following families, the bandicoots and kangaroos, t\\'o tendencies which largely affect the form of the animals are to be observed, viz., one towards the dispro- Perameles nasuta, bandicoot. Mi/rmecobius /asciadis, bauded ant-eater. maL SUPIALS. 35 portionate development of the liind legs, tlie other towards the disuse of from two to four of the inner toes of the hind feet. In both the gait is consequently peculiar ; in the bandicoots it is a combination of running and leaping similar to that of a hare ; the kangaroos, on the other hand, where the excessive development of the hind legs is most marked, progress by a series of leaps in whicli the foi-e legs take no part at all. The bandicoots form the fifth family of the marsupials, for whicli the term Per- AMEUD^ has been selected in reference to the leading genus. Two genera are recoo-- nized, Perameles and Choeropus, which are readily distinguished by the structure of the feet. They agree, however, in their small size, pointed snout, their number of the teeth (t I, c 1, 2^ h '« I)) and the fact that the opening of the pouch, which contains eight teats, looks backwards. The genus Perameles includes forms in which the fore feet have five toes, the two inner of these being rudimentary and nailless ; the fourth and fifth toes of the hind feet bear the weight of the body, while the second and third joined toes are small. The inner toe may be small — Perameles proper — or entirely absent, as in the rabbit- eared perameles {P. lagotis from West Australia), sometimes made into a separate sub- genus, Maerotis, or Peragalea, and further characterized by its softer fur from the other bandicoots. These are most largely represented on the Australian Continent, and embrace six or seven .species, of which P. nasuta, P. macroitra, and P. obesula are the commonest. The bandicoots live in the cooler and more mountainous regions of Aus- tralia, and form burrows there in their search for roots and tubers. They are occasionally a great nuisance to the settlers by causing ravages in their potato-fields, and, when they get the chance, by burrowing under the walls of the barns and getting at the grain. In this respect they may be as troublesome as rats, which they resemble in general form and in the length and sparsely-haired character of the tail. They are fortunately not possessed of rodent teeth, however, and are thus comparatively easily kept out of granaries. Unlike the rat, they are excessively timid, but easily r oncile themselves to captivity. Like most marsupials, they are uninteresting as inhal/ cants of a zoological garden, which is jjartly attributable to their low intellectual development and partly to their nocturnal habits. In addition to the species which are found on the continent, several other species have been described from the neighboring islands. Thus, P. doreyanus and longi- caudatus are found in New Guinea, P. arvensis in the Aru Islands, and P. ntfescens in Ke. The second genus of the family embraces the singular Choerojms castanotis, or pig- footed bandicoot from South Australia. It is characterized by very slender legs ; the fore-legs ha\e only two toes, the second and third, and the hind-legs only one, the fourth, which bears the weight of the body. The second and third joined toes and the fifth are present, and bear nails, but are quite rudimentary. The habits of the Chceroptis appear to correspond to those of the ordinary bandicoots, except that it forms a nest for itself among thick underbrush so as easily to escape notice. In size it resembles a small rabbit ; its fur is somewhat longer than that of the ordinary bandi- coot, and is for the most part of a brownish-gray tint. In the family which embraces the kangaroos and their allies the difference between the size of the fore and hind legs is tisually much gTeater than in the bandicoots : to this peculiarity the group owes its name, Mackopodid.e. Of all the marsupial families this includes not only the largest forms, but also the greatest number of genera and 36 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. species, and is, further, that wliich has the widest geographical range. Tlie following may be regarded as the most imjjortant anatomical characteristics of the grouj). The dental formula is, i f , c g, or i, p \, in |. Of the upper incisors, the foremost are the largest ; the two lower incisors are chisel-shaped and project horizontally forwards fi-om the jaw. Occasionally the premolars are strikingly large. In contrast to other marsupials there are generally well-developed eyelashes. The innermost toes of the hind feet are absent, while the second and third are much reduced in size, and included in the skin as far as the last joints. The contiguous surfaces of the claws of these toes are flattened, but the iimer claw is convex on its inner side, and the outer convex on its outer side. Of the fourth and fifth toes, which chiefly bear the weight of the body, the former is considerably the larger. The stomach, in ac- cordance with the truly herbivoroi;s habits of the animals, is much elongated, and sacculated after the fashion of the large intestine. An account of the appearance and habits of the giant kangaroo (^Macro2>us major) may serve as an introduction to the natural history of this large and important family. This species was discovered by Cook little more than a century ago on the coast of New South Wales. At that time abundant, it has been gradually driven further into the interior through persistent hunting, both by natives and colonists. Although for the most part found in open places, browsing on the herbage and bushes, it retires during the summer and during the heat of the day to any shelter m its vicinity. The kangaroo has generally been described as a social animal, but it is probable that the families seen feeding together in herds are rather attracted by the abundance of food in particular places than by each other's society. The disproportionate development of the hinder part of the body makes the usual movements somewliat awk- ward, but when in full flight its leaps — often fifteen or twenty feet — are described as very graceful. Two common attitudes in rest are illustrated in the plate. One member of the family, often a male, squats on the ground supporting itself on its tail and elongated ankle-bones, while the others lie about or browse at their ease, then commonly applying their fore feet to the gi-ound, till they receive the danger signal from their sentinel. Like the other species the giant kangaroo is exceedingly timid. In captivity it has been known to die of sheer fright, and in freedom it is very readily alarmed by any unfamiliar sight, sound, or smell, immediately raishig itself upon tail and hind limbs as on a tripod. The natives generally hunt the kangaroo by forming a circle round the herd, and then killing them with clubs. By the colonists they are generally driven towards a i)ar- FlG. 14. — Skeleton of Macropus major. Mncropus major, giant kangaroo. MARSUPIALS. 37 ticular spot, where the sportsmen have been stationed beforehand, after tlie fashion of a battue, but they are also stalked, and occasionally hunted by dogs something like fox- hounds. Although so timid, the kangaroo, at close quarters, and especially when wounded, may turn out to be an enemy not to be despised. A blow from the tail or hind leg is sufficiently severe, but the dogs are very often torn open by the strong claws of the hind feet. Especially when it has taken to water is it able to defend itself against dogs, for its high stature enables it to stand out of the M^ater, wliile the dog is held under by the fore paws. The males especially attain a high stature, often seven feet in their ordinary erect position, while the females are on an average a tliird smaller. The general color of the abundant hair is bro\vnish-yellow, paling on the under parts and limbs, but darkening considerably on the tail. Our figure of the skeleton. Fig. 14, exhibits well the proportions of the limb-bones, the strength of the tail-vertebra^, the epipubic bones, jutting out in front from the jielvis, and the peculiar character of the dentition. The dental foi-mula is i ^, c g, p \, m ^, and a considerable gap exists be- tween the incisors and molar teeth. The shape and direction of the lower incisors is very characteristic ; associated therewith is a peculiarity in the structure of the lower jaw which deserves to be referred to at some length. The two halves of the lower jaw are joined in front in such a manner as to permit a separation of the two long incisor teeth. This is taken advantage of by the animal m grazing; the grass is seized between the sharp inner margins of these teeth, and is clipped off as by a pair of shears. This is accomjianied by a forward movement of the head, terminated by a slight lateral jerk. In some of the large forms an interval of ^ inch may thus be formed between the incisors. The external edges of these teeth are likewise sharp, and this lateral movement serves to bring them close up to the upper incisors, between which and them there is otherwise a gap on either side. It appears that an African rat shares this peculiarity of the kangaroos. An explanation of this form of lower jaw has been offered by Mr. H. W. Blundell in a letter to Nature: — " The great plains and deserts over which these marsupials wander in search of food afford an exceedingly precarious supply of j^asture in consequence of droughts and bush-fires, which not unfrequently follow a superabundance of herbage. These ani- mals, by means of their procumbent teeth, which they make use of as shears, are thus enabled to cut off any green roots or half-buried remains spared by a scorching sun, and obtain nourishment where any grass-feeding placental animal would certainly starve. It is in consequence, I believe, of tlie power which is by this means given to these mar- supials, that in the great pastural districts of New South Wales and Queensland it has been found that they are far more destructive of food than any stock that can be put ujion the land. And in places where wallabies and pademelons .are exceedingly numer- ous it is noticed that the native grasses in the particular localities which they frequent become completely destroyed, and that such places remain ungrassed until fresh seed is scattered over them by the winds." The characteristic locomotion of the kangaroos is well described by Brehm. In leaping, the fore limbs are tightly clasped against the chest, the tail stretched straight backwards, while the powerful thigh-muscles are caused suddenly to straighten the joints, by which action the body flies through the air in a low curve. In ordinary locomotion the leaps are only nine or ten feet, but when alarmed the animal doubles or even trebles its exertions. The right foot seems to be employed more than the left, and is held a little in front of that. With each leap the tail swings upwards and 38 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. downwards ; it is not employed in changing the course of the animal, but this is always effected by two or three short leaps. In locomotion its fore limbs are never lowered, and in fact only the toes of the hind limbs touch the ground. In open gi-ound it is more than a match in swiftness for the fleetest dog, and can keep uj) its swiftest pace for hours ; when there is any cover it has immeasurably the advantange by clearing clumps of shrubs sLx or eight feet high ; on uneven ground, on the other hand, it is at a disadvantage, especially do^^•n hill, for it is liable to slip and roll over on reaching a sloping surface. We shall find that the rock-kaugaroos are better able to cope with these unfavorable circumstances. The coloring of the giant kangaroo as described above may vary into paler yellow and into darker, almost sooty hues. These varieties have occasionally been accorded the value of species, but it is probable that they are brought about by local influences. Some members of the genus, however (which have been separated under the sul>genus Onijchogalea), present peculiarities of more importance : these are small, graceful, and prettily-colored forms {M. unguifer., M. frcBnatus, M. lunatus), in which the end of the tail is provided with a horny excrescence something like a nail. Until lately it was thought that the genus Jlacroj^us was confined to Australia and Tasmania, but recent investigations have brought to light species from New Guinea and the smaller islands of the Austro-Malayan group. Such are J£ bruni from Am and Ke, 3/. jmpuamcs ivova eastern New Guinea, 31. broivni, a sad-colored species from New Ireland. To the genus Halmaturus (characterized by the absence of hah* on the muflle) belong by far the greater number of species of this family. They do not live on open ground like the species of 3Iacropus, but inhabit country more or less thickly covered Avith shrubs. Some of them are of large size, such as the Antelope kangaroo of North Australia (IT. cmtilopinus), in which the hairs are stiff and applied to the body as in a deer's skin, and Bennett's kangaroo, the Brush kangaroo of the Tasmanian colonists (H. Bennettii), which is of considerable value, both for its flesh and liide ; others again, the true wallabies, are of small size, but are regarded as very valuable game. Such are the pademelon wallaby of New South Wales {H. thetidis), and the wallaby of Tas- mania {H. hiUiirdieri), a form which lives in herds of hundreds in the scrub of the interior of Tasmania. A species of Halmaturus has recently also been found on New Guinea. The genus Petrof/ah includes forms fitted for living in rocky districts. The hind legs are shorter, as are the nails of the toes. The under surface of the foot is covered with horn^- tubercles, which are evidently of service in keeping the animals from slipping ; and the tail, although used in balancing the body, does not support its weight as in the other forms. The type of this group lias a well-marked brush at the end of its tail, whence its specific name P. penicillatus. Some se-\en s])ecies of rock- kangaroo have been described, all from Australia. The so-called Hare-kangaroos, Lagorchestes, live upon the open jilains, and have the muffle hairy, like 3facropus. In size, color, and habits they greatly resemble the hare, making like it a " form " in the grass, and being exceedingly fleet. One of the species found in islands on the west coast, L. fasciatus, retires in danger to galleries made in the Mimosa "scrub" by cutting away the lower branches and spines. It is almost impossible to procure them fi-om these retreats. The second section of the kangaroo family embraces natives of New Guinea and Mysol. The best known species is Dorcopsis hfctuosa, which was living for some time in the Zoological Gardens hi London. It is a sad-colored form of small size, the fur, MARSUPIALS. 39 except on the belly, being ashy-brown. On the n.ij)e of the neck the hair is directed forw;irds, a jieculiarity which is jirosented by all the members of this section. The body is about two feet, and the tail one foot in length ; the latter is covered with blackish hair, except for one and one-half inch at the tip, which is naked and scaly on the under surface ; a condition due to the fact that this part is used as a method of sup2)ort. Tlie Mysol species [D. nmelleri) is more of a chocolate-hue. The presence of upper eye-teeth as well as the large size of the premolars is sufficient to distinguish the skulls of these forms from the ordinary kangaroo's. The stomach also differs from that of the kangaroo, in being lined by ordinary gastric glands. The tree-kangaroos, which form the genus Dcndrolagus (D. ursitms and inustus), while asrreeing with the ground-kangaroos of the same region in the anatomical char- FiG. 15. — Halmaturus tltetidis, 'pa.demelon. acters referred to above, differ from them markedly in their habits and in certain modifications of form due to these. The tail no longer serves as a prop, conse- (juently it is not so robust ; the fore legs are longer in proportion to the hind, and are armed \\-ith more powerful claws, by which they are enabled to gras}i the bark ami branches in climbing. They move on the trees by a series of short jumjis with the hind feet, which are, however, by no means so well adajjted to an arboreal life as the same parts in the phalangers. Wallace considers that the tree-kangaroos have been modified from ground forms to enable them to feed on the foliage in the vast forests of New Guinea, as these form the great natural feature which distinguishes that country from Australia. The sub-family Hypsiprymnina,' includes the Kangaroo-rats, or Potoroos, usually of about the size of a rabbit, and differing from the true kangai-oos not only in their anatomical peculiarities, but also in their habits and appearance. They feed on roots, which they dig up with their fore feet, the three middle toes of which are elongated 40 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. for this purpose. IIypsi2:irymnus murinus, a native of New South Wales, is the tyjie of the long-faced genus ; the fur is long and somewhat coarse, the tail com|iletely rat-like in its character (Fig; 16). Of the short-faced forms, Bettongia nmicidus, the Tasmaniau kangaroo-rat is one of the best known ; while the third genus, ^piprymnus Fig. 16. — Hypsiprifmiius murinus, kaugaroo-rat. was formed by Garrod to include one of the largest forms, the red kangaroo-rat of New South "Wales {^. rufescens). This sjiecies somewhat resembles the hare-kangaroos in its habits, is pursued by the natives for food, and although very fleet, is easily taken on account of its habit of taking shelter in hollow logs. The last family of the Australian marsupials, the Dasyueid^, differs from all the other groups living in the same geographical region in the character of the dentition, which is unquestionably of either carnivorous or insectivorous type, and in the fact that the second and third toes of the hind feet are perfectly free from each other. Next to the Macropidte this family is the richest in genera and species. Of the genera, Myrmecohius, which only includes a single species, the banded ant- eater {31. fasciatus) is one of the most interesting on account of the great numlier of its teeth (the formula is i |, c -J-, ni |), and the absence of a pouch. Both of these peculiarities seem to point to the fact that it is an archaic form, a view which is sup- ported by the dentition of the earliest marsupial fossils. The ant-eater is a native of the west coast of Australia. It is of about the size of a squii'rel, and is at once recognized by its pecuUar coloring. The anterior part of the body is reddish, the posterior black, and this part is traversed by six or more white vertical bands. The feet and claws arc short and stout, evidently adapted to scratch open the ant-hills in the vicinity of which the creature lives; while the tongue, as in the echidna, is long and slender., and serves to attach to itself the insects which are afterwards ground down between the prickly cusps of the grinders. The ant-eater is one of the most harmless of the Dasyurida=, but is not easily kept in captivity on account of the difficulty of supplying it with a projjer quantity of suitable food. The smallest members of the Dasyuridae ai-e certain insectivorous animals, resem- MARSUPIALS. 41 bling mice in coloring, form, and size, ami wliicli form four nearly-related o-enera : Phascologala, Antechinus, Podabrus, AntecJdiuninjs. The first-mentioned genus in- cludes the largest species {Ph. jJenicillatiis) which attains the size of a squirrel, and possesses a long tail of which the greater part is busliily-haired. In Antechinus {A. apicatus and flavipes) the tail is clothed ^\\\.h short hairs tliroughout, and tliere is an indication of a pouch. Podahrus again has the tail thickened at the base. Another curious member of this group is a recently discove'red form, Antechinomys lanigera, from East Central Australia. The body is little more tlian three inches in length, while the tail (the tip of which is provided with a woolly tuft) measures almost five. The general color of the fur is mouse-gray, the belly, however, being white ; a naked space surrounds the teats, which are not very distinct, and in this case also the skin is not turned into a pouch. ^ -<'"l''l^ iv -^^^'•^0^ Fig. 17. — Dasyurus tirsinus, Tasmanian devil. The largest as well as the most truly carnivorous members of this family are the species of Dasyurus and Thylacinus. To the former genus belong certain forms which, both in size and general appearance, have much superficial resemblance to the weasels and martins of Europe and America. They are distributed throughout all Australia and Tasmania. Some of the smaller ones, like the last group, possess a small inner toe on the hind foot, but the best known form, the Tasmanian devil. Fig. 17 {JD. ursinus), is destitute of that, and is consequently regarded as the type of a sub-genus (Sarco- 2}hilus). In size, the Tasmanian devil ap])roaches the badger; in the form of body, relatively large size of head, and texture of the fur, it is more bear-like. The color is deep black, with the exception of a white band or^ the neck and two white spots on the sides ; occasionally another white band is present on the rumjj. In accordance with its carnivorous habits the dentition is somewhat formidable ; its formula is i -*, c \, p g, m |. According to Mr. Harris, the original dcscriber of this species : " These animals were very common in our first settling at Hobart Town, and 42 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. were particularly destructive to poultry, etc. They, however, furnished the convicts with a fresh meal, and the taste was said not to be unlike veal. As the settlement increased, and the ground became cleared, they were driven from their haunts near the town to the deeper recesses of the forests yet unexjalored. They are, however, easily procured by setting a trap in the most unfrequented parts of the woods, baited with raw flesh, all kinds of which they eat indiscriminately and voraciously ; they also, it is probable, prey on dead fish, blubber, etc., as their tracks are frequently found on the sand of the sea-shore. In a state of confinement they appear to be untamably savage, biting severely, and uttering at the same time a low, yelling growl. A male and female, Fig. 18. — Thylacinus c!/iioc<^j>kalus, pouclied dog. which I kept for a coujjle of months chained together in an empty cask, were con- tinually fighting; their quarrels began as soon as it was dark (as they slept all day), and continued through the night almost without intermission, accomjianied by a kind of hollow barking not unlike a dog, and sometimes a sudden knid of snorting, as if the breath was retained a considerable time and then expelled. They frequently sat on their hind parts, and used their fore paws to convey food to their mouths. Tlie mus- cles of the jaw were very strong, as-they cracked the largest bones with ease." The Tasmanian devil is a frequent inmate of menageries and zoological gardens; it never becomes reconciled to its ca])tivity or keeper so as to lose its characteristic ill-nature, and as its cowers away from the light in the darkest corner of its cage dur- ing the day, it is no more interesting than most of the nocturnal marsupials. MARSUPIALS. 43 The remaining genus, Thylacinus, includes only one species, the zebra-wolf, or pouched dog (T. cynocephalus, Fig. IS), likewise a native of Tasmania. In size it is equal to a wolf ; the head, as its sjaecilic name indicates, is dog-shaped, the muzzle being much longer than in the Tasmanian devil ; the fur is short and applied to the skin, its color a graj-ish-brown. It owes its name, zebra-wolf, to twelve or fourteen black stri23es which run transversely across the back and rump. In its nocturnal habits, and the character of its food, it resembles the Tasmanian devil, and like it, has been to a large extent exterminated by traps on account of its ravages on sheepfolds and poultry-yards. It lives in less accessible places than that species, and is consequently rai'er in captivity, although when secured it conducts itself in a very similar fashion. Its sensitiveness to light is evident by the constant working of the third eyelid or nictitating membrane, which can be drawn like a screen over the surface of the eye- ball. Unlike the rest of the marsupials, the epipubic bones are only in a cartilaginous condition ; further jjeculiarities, which have been already referred to, are the rudiment- ary pouch possessed by the male Thylacine, and the far-back position of the aperture of the pouch in the female. Although the pouched dog is at present entirely confiaed to Tasmania, fossil remains of the genus have been found in caves in Australia, so that it is likely that the essentially carnivorous marsupials had at one time a very much wider distribution than they have at the present day. Reference has already been made to the doctrine that existing monotremes and existing marsupials must in no wise be regarded as occupying a place in the direct line of descent of the higher mammals from the lower vertebrates. As Prof. Huxley has remarked, they ought only to be regarded as representative forms of the groups that occupied that position. From the study of comparative anatomy it is possible, how- ever, to recognize what characters are due to modification, and what charactei's must have been possessed by progenitors of existing forms. Dr. Gill has accordingly employed the terms Prototheria., 3Ietatheria, and Eutheria to designate those stages of evolution which are represented at the jjresent day by the sub-classes, Ornithodel- phia, Didelphia and Monodelphia. The Metatheria must have possessed, in common with the Prototheria, ei)i]nibic bones, and a small corpus callosum, and like them, must have been characterized by the want of that mode of nutrition of the fcetus in the womb which is found in the higher animals, the " allantoic placenta." They must have possessed, however, in common with the higher animals, which descended from them, a complete double dentition, and unmodified five-toed feet, while they j^robably did not bring forth then- young earlier than existing carnivores and rodents do. No remains have yet been found to which these characters can be attributed ; all, even the earliest, are distinctly marsrrpial. The earliest mammalian remains that have been detected in America consist of a lower jaw with teeth (three incisors, one canine, and ten molars), from beds of triassic age in North Carolina — the genus DromatJierium. In the number and pattern of its molars it resembles more closely the banded ant-eater (llyrmecobius) than any other existing marsupial. The onh' Jurassic mammalian remains found in this country, consisting of lower jaws and teeth, have been described from the Atlantosaurus beds in the Rocky Mountain region by Prof. O. C. Marsh. He regards them as belonging to animals allied to the existing opossums, but of considerably smaller size, and probably insectivorous in their 44 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. habits. That most nearly related to the opossum he has named D^-yolestes, but rep- resentatives of two other families have been found more nearly related to fossils occurring in beds of tlie same age in England. These he has named Thylacodon and Tinodon. In more recent formations, both in North and South America, fossils have been found referable to the same genus as the existing opossums of these regions. By far the greater part of the fossil raarsujiials of Australia are of comparatively recent origin, and have been found in bone-caves in various jaarts of the continent and in beds of tertiary or post-tertiary age. Many of them are of gigantic size, and most are referalile to existing families. As already indicated, page 28, Gerard Krefft has pointed out that all the Australian marsupials, extinct and living, are evidently offshoots of a kind of animal which com- bined the dental characters of both carnivorous and herbivorous marsupials. The Thylacoleo., which attained the size of a lion, was the last representative of tliis original form, its grinders being decidedly carnivorous in form, while the other teeth jwint to a herbivorous mode of life. Krefft believes that from such a form as this the living marsupials were develoj)ed in two directions ; the one line resulting in the forms which possess two conjoined inner toes (the kangaroos, kangaroo-rats, wombats, phalangers, and bandicoots), the other culminating in the true flesh-eaters Avithout the conjoined mner toes (the Tasmanian devil, dasyures, pouched mice, etc.). Tlie native bear he regards as the most ancient of living marsupials, and a diminutive representative of the gigantic Diprotodons and Nototheria, which are generally referred to the kangaroo family. An idea of the size of the Diprotodon may be formed from the fact that its skull was three feet in length. In his geographical distribution, Wallace offers some ex2ilanations of the causes of disappearance of these large marsupial forms from the surface of the earth : " This can hardly have been due to the glacial epoch, for no very extensive glaciation could have occurred in a country like Australia ; but if the ocean sank two thousand feet, the great eastern mountain range might have given rise to local glaciers. It is, however, ahnost certain that during late tertiary times Australia must have been verj' much more extensive than it is now. This is necessary to allow of the development of its peculiar and extensive fauna; especially as we see that that fauna comprised animals rivalling in bulk those of the great continents. It is further indicated by the relations with New Guinea and the character of the fauna of the Australian region. The lowering of the ocean during the glacial period would be favorable to the still further development of the fauna of such a country ; and it is to the unfavorable condition pro- duced by its subsequent rising, equivalent to a depression of the land to the amount of two thousand feet, that we must impute the extinction of so many remarkable groups of animals. It is not improbable that the dis.appearance of the ice, and the consequent (aj)parent) subsidence of the land, might have been rapid as compared with the rate at whicli large animals can become modified to meet new conditions. Exten- sive tracts of fertile land might have been submerged, and the consequent crowding of large numbers of species and individuals on limited areas would have led to a struggle for existence, in which the less adapted and less easily modifiable, not the physically weaker, would succumb. "There is, however, another cause for the extinction of large rather tlian snudl ani- mals whenever an important change of condition occurs. It is dejtendent on the fact that large animals as compared with small ones are slow breeders, and as they also MARSUPIALS. 45 necessarily exist in nmeli smaller numbers in a given area, they offer far less materials for favorable variations than do smaller animals. "In such an extreme case as that of the rabbit and elephant, the young born each year in the world are probably as some millions to one ; and it is very easily conceiv- able that in a thousand years the former might, imder pressure of rapidly changing conditions, become modified into a distinct species, while the latter, not offering enough favorable variation to effect a suitable adaptation, would become extinct. We must also remember the extreme specialization of many of the large animals that have become extinct — a specialization which would necessarily render modification in any new direction difficult, since the inherited tendency of variation would probably be to increase the specialization in the same directions, which had heretofore been beneficial. If to these two causes we add the difficulty of obtaining sufficient food for such large animals, and perhaps tlie injurious effects of changes of climate, we shall not find it difficult to understand how such a vast physical revolution as the glacial epoch, with its attendant phenomena of elevations and subsidences, \\z., winds, and sudden floods by the bui-sting of lake-barriers, might have led to the total extinction of a vast num- ber of the most bulky forms of Mammalia, while the less bulky were able to survive, either by greater hardiness of constitution or by becoming more or less modified. The result is apparent in the comparatively small or moderate size of the species constitute ing the temperate fauna in all parts of the globe. It is much to be regretted that no mammalian remains of earlier date have been found in Australia, as we should there see if it is really the case that marsupials have always foi-med its highest type of mam- malian life. At present its fossil fauna is chiefly of interest to the zoologist, but throws little light on the past relations of this isolated country with other parts of the globe." As in North America so in Euroj^e, the earliest known mammalian remains have been found in beds of triassic age, and although consisting merely of teeth, evince marked marsupial characteristics, and indeed have been compared to those of the banded ant-eater in their form. Both in the lower and upper oolitic strata, numerous lower-jaws with teeth have been found, which are also interpreted as belonging to insectivorous marsupials, the grinding teeth being numerous, and provided with sharp cusps. Among the earliest forms are Phascolotherium, Amphilestes, Amphitherium ; among the later, Spalaco- theriurn and Triconodon. It is interesting to note the similarity of these forms ^vith the fossils of the same age, recently described by Prof. Marsh. With the beginning of the Tertiary period, the marsupials seem to have disappeared from Europe. A well- preserved skeleton of an opossum-like form was, however, found by Cuvier in eocene strata near Paris, and referred in fact by him to the same genus as the American opos- sum, from which, however, it has recently been separated as Peratherium. R. Ramsay Weight. 46 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. Sub-Class III. — Monodelphia. All of the remaining groups of Mammals are united in a single sub-class, which may be distinguislied from the two preceding divisions of the same rank by the pres- ence of a true allantoic placenta, a single termination of the oviduct, and a higher grade of nervous system, the brain being usually larger, the corpus callosum better developed, and the anterior commissures reduced in size. Marsupial or epipubic bones are never found, though in some Carnivora there are small cartilages which appear to represent them. The twelve orders of Monodeli^hia naturally fall into two divisions. The first, Ineducabilia, comprising the edentates, rodents, insectivores, and bats, being characterized by a relatively small and smooth cerebrum, which does not cover either the olfactory lobes nor, completely, the cerebellum. The other division, Educabilia, has a large and convoluted cerebrum, covering, or nearly covering, the olfactory lobes in front and the cerebellum behind. ORDER I. — BRUTA, OR EDENTATA. Scattered over various tropical portions of the globe are several minor tj^es of mammals of a low grade of organization and characterized by peculiarities of form or strange modifications of the dennal investiture. South America is especially rich in Fig. 19. — Skeleton of Tatusia. such types, and on that continent are found tlie armadillos and pichiciagos with their shell-like covering, the typical ant-eaters, and the sloths whose habits have obtained for them their proverbial name. Outside of America, Africa nourishes two strange types — the pangolins, with a development of the derm.al appendages simulating a pine-cone, and animals having a superficial resemblance to the hog, but whose jdccu- liarities of organization ally them to the pangolins. India shares with Africa the pangolin type ; but elsewhere than in the regions mentioned are found no close rela- tions. Tliese various forms are so unlike in appearance, as well as in several other respects, that it is not to be wondered at that their relationship to each other has been doubted and disputed. Nevertheless, the more closely they have been studied the more evident becomes the truth that they form a natm-al group as contradistin- EDENTA TES. 47 guished from other animal types. That group has been credited with ordinal value, and was first recognized as a whole by Cuvier, who gave to it the name Edentata, or the Toothless Animals. But long before Cuvier's time, Linn;eus had constituted a group, which he named Bruta, for mammals destitute of incisor teeth, and such want of incisive teeth is the most striking superficial characteristic of the animals in ques- tion. It is true certain other annuals are de\-oid of incisor teeth, and Cuvier especially sinned in the inclusion, on that account, of two types — the Australian duck mole and Echidna — which differ more from the forms enumerated than do any other mammals. But the ant-eaters and pangolins are pre-eminently the mammals destitute of front as well as other teeth, and may therefore with strict propriety retain the name Bruta as their ordinal designation, and with them are to be associated the sloths, arraa^ dillos, etc. All these forms are ineducabilian placentiferous mammals, with a relatively small and unilobate cerebrum ; the members formed for progression by walking or crawling ■ the carpal and tarsal bones variously developed; the pro25odial bones distinct; the hind limbs normally related to the pehis ; and the teeth variously develoj^ed, often absent, and always deficient in true incisors. Some remarkable characteristics are developed in representatives of the order, and such as are not paralleled in any other order of mammals. In two groujjs a peculiar der- mal armor is found, but this covering is very different in the respective types, and must have been developed independently; the armadillos exhibit one condition and the pangolins another. The other edentate sub-orders show no approach to such arma- tm-e, but hair is the sole covering, as in ordinary mammals. Another noteworthy peculiarity is a condition which may be called club-footedness. There is a tendency to this in most of the types, but it is carried to an extreme in the ant-eaters, and the sloths exhibit a modification of the condition which forbids regular progress on land. In no natural order of mammals is so great a variation exhibited as to various other characters. The jDlacenta, so distinctive for most other groups, here fails in gene- rality, and each great sub-division manifests more or less important peculiarities. The best course, then, is to review the various forms first and to generalize the results of the examination afterwards. The American forms first demand our attention. These are at once recognizable as divisible into three categories, by external as ^\ell as internal peculiarities, and have been severally designated as sub-orders, named Loricata, Tai'digrada, and Vermilinguia. SuB-OeDER I. — LOEICATA. The Loricates are all those American edentates which are known as armadillos, but which, differing greatly in structure, are segregated under three ]jrimary sub-divisions, which may be called families. The scientific as well as popular names of the sub-order have reference to the most prominent external character — the development of a quasi coat of mail in the form of a carapace, whicli covers all the back, leaving only the head (but not always) and tail exposed from above. This carapace is the result of a peculiar ossification of the dermal investiture, and is formed by the coalescence of numerous small scutes. It may be entire, but in the living types is resolvable into three more or less well-defined regions, — an anterior, a posterior, and an entire or variously divided median portion. To such an extent is this sometimes divided into 48 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. zones that the animal is capable of rolling itself into a ball, and thus, by means of the carajaace, covering the body ; the upper surface of the head, and generally the tail, are also more or less shielded by analogous ossifications, and so likewise are the legs. The inferior and less exposed parts are, however, covered with liair, as usual in mam- mals, and hair also is manifested between the joints of the osseous plates, or zones. Teeth are always developed, but in greatly varying number, although approximately equally numerous in the ojiposite jaws. Generally, however, there are from seven to nine teeth on each side in each jaw, but in tlie genus Priodontes there are from twenty to twenty-five, and consequently they may reach the full number of one hundred in all. These teetli are usually confined to the sides, and in the upper jaw to the supramax- illary bones, and only in Dasypus proper do they encroach on the intermaxillary and assume the position of incisors. In form they are sub-cylindrical, and appreciably distant in most, but in Priodontes they are compressed and closely approximated. In the aber- rant Priodontes, too, they have truncated summits ; but in the others there is a median transverse ridge with sloping fore and aft surfaces resulting from the alternation of the teeth of the respective jaws, and the consequent wearing of the crowns. Dentine is the chief constituent of the teeth, but an external layer of cement is developed. As usual in the order, the teeth are generally monophj-odont (without successors or pre- decessors), but in one type (the Tatusiids) they are truly diphyodont, all the teeth of the adult, save the very liindmost, having milk or deciduous predecessors, and in the same group an enamel-organ at least is connected with the teeth. The legs have the first joints enclosed in the abdominal integument ; the toes are five in number on the hind feet (which are plantigrade), but vary in the fore ; the latter are pre-eminently adapted for digging, and all the members of the group are famous burrowers. Al- though a number of species can run quite rapidly, it is with a shuffling gait, and some exhibit a curious aspect in progression, advancing, as they do, on tip-toe, or rather tip- claw, with their fore feet. Tlie placenta is oval or discoidal. In Tatusia, Alphonse Milne-Edwards found " four foetuses contained in a common chorion, attached to a single placenta of a zonary form, apparently the result of the coalescence of originally distinct placentiB." The Tatusiids are those armadillos which have the fore toes nearly symmeti-ically developed, the second and third being longest and sub-equal, and the first and fourth also sub-equal, and but moderately shortened ; the metacarpals and phalanges are also moderately developed in due proportion, and all distinct ; the fifth toe is obsolete ; the head is narrow and the ears close together ; the shield has the anterior and posterior portions as well as median zones well defined. It is to this family that the only armadillo which extends into the United States — • the Tatusia novemcincta, or Peba — belongs. This species is the most extensively dis- tributed of the loricates, ranging from Texas in the north to Paraguay in the south. It attains .a total length of about thirty inches, of which the tail forms rather less than half. The dorsal shell has generally eight or nine bands, but sometimes (in the young) as few as six, and the old names, Dasijpus septemcinctus, octocinctus, and novemcmctiis, express such variations in number. The peba affects o]ion lands and ])lantations, and seeks its food chiefly in the night-time. It is quite indiscriminate in its diet, but is dis- posed to take it into its burrow and there eat it at leisure. It is more prolific than the armadillos of the Dasyjiodid and Cldaniyjjhorid grou])S, liaving sometimes as many as ten at a birth, although it has only four teats, and consequently death from starvation E DENT A TES. . 49 is imminent to some of the brood. Xotwithstanding its indiscriminate diet, it is esteemed for its flesh, and is extensi\el}- liunted where it dwells. It is chiefly roasted in its shell, and is claimed to surpass roast pig in delicacy. Its own appetite and preference for ants are sometimes made use of, as in Nica- ragua, the animal becoming jiartially domesticated and indefatigable in keej)ing down tlie insect nuisances. The burrows which it constructs are simple holes, six or seven feet in depth. The opening is circular, and varies in diameter from eight inches to two feet, according to the size of the animal inhabiting it. The direction of these burrows varies considerably, but usually they begin beside some root, going at first directly downward, and then pursuing a course more or less oblique, or even approaching the horizontal. In such burrows most of the time of the peba is spent. According to Azara, the Brazilians put the carapace of this and other species of armadillos to a peculiar use ; cleaning out the flesh, etc., the hardened walls form the body of a primitive guitar. Another musical instrument is furnished by the Kabalas- sou, its tail being used by the Botocudos of Brazil as a trumpet. Fig. 20. — Tatusia novemcincta, Peba, six-banded form. Several species have been distinguished by Dr. Gray as very nearly related to the •nine-banded armadillo, but several at least require verification. There are, however, other species of the genus quite distinct from the type — one found on the Pampas of temperate South America, Tatusia hybriclus, the mule armadillo (so-called because of its long ears), and the Tatusia kappleri of Surinam and Ecuador. The typical armadillos, forming the family Dasypodid.e, have the toes of the fore feet variously modified and disproportioned to each other ; the second toe is the longest VOL. V. — 4 50 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. (but not necessarily the stoutest), and tlie third as well as fourth and fifth are variously shortened ; the head is broad behind, and the ears far apart ; the dorsal shield differs in different groups. The most striking modifications are manifested in the following types: — The Encouberts, or Dasypodines, haxe the first to third metacarpals regularly graduated, and the third longest, but the fourth and fifth are much ablireviated ; the third to fifth digits have each the usual number (tliree) of phalanges, but they are much abbreviated; the anterior and posterior bucklers are well differentiated; the tail has a zoned sheath; and the teeth are in moderate number {%'.\% on each side). Some four species of this type have been discriminated and referred to two genera — Dasijpus and Euphractus. The Peludo, or Dasi/pus villosus, is common in the Argentine Pampas as well as Chili, and its habits were early studied by Darwin. It is not an exclusively nocturnal animal, but moves about in the daytime as well. It does not excavate burrows to live in, and shuns damp localities, affecting dry upland plains. Among other food it regales itself on the carcasses of fallen animals, and will burrow, for example, into the body of a horse, and therein satiate itself. Its own flesh is esteemed as superior to beef or veal, and is prepared by roasting, but it is sometimes so fat as to pall the appetite. The Kabassous, or Xenurines, have the third as well as the fourth and fifth meta- carpals abbreviated and broad, and the proximal phalanges are suppressed or united with the metacarpals, while the distal phalanx of the middle digit is much enlarged, and those of the fotirth and fifth not very much smaller ; the bucklers are more zoniferous than the Dasypodines, and the tail is almost naked ; the teeth are in normal number (f on each side). The species of this division — Xenm-us umci?ictus, and JT. hispidus — inhabit tropical South America, and burrow with great facilit}'. The Kabalassous, or Priodontines, exhibit a still further deviation from the type in the structure of the fore feet ; the metacarpals and proximal phalanges of the three outer (third to fifth) toes being more abbreviated, and, conversely, the last or ungual phalanx of the third toe more enlarged ; the anterior and posterior bucklers have much the appearance of the intervening rings, which are numerous (12 to 13), and the tail has alternating rings of small plates ; the teeth are very numerous (f Slf Jlsf on each side), exceeding those of any other mammals, except some cetaceans. But one species of this group is known, — Priodontes ffiffas, — which, as its name indicates, is comparatively large and surpasses any other member of the family, some- times attaining a length of nearly five feet, of which the tail constitutes less than a third. It resides in the forests of Brazil and neighboring states. Its power of bur- rowing is proportioned to its huge claws, and as it intrudes on the graves of buried natives and travellers, it is looked upon with a certain avei'sion. It feeds upon carrion as well as insects, roots, and the fruit that has fallen within its reach. The Apars, or Tolypeutines, exhibit the extreme of modification in the family. In the fore feet the two outer toes are much reduced or obsolete, while the thirequal, and the fourth and fifth shortened. Tlie head is elongated conic, the snout somewhat suilline, and the mouth sub-tubular ; the teeth number eight to ten in the upper and eight in the lower jaw, 62 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. although not all present at the same time ; the ears are large and distant from each other, and the tail is stout r.nd elongated conic. The Orycteropodids are confined to Africa, and excavate and live in burrows. They chiefly feed on insects, and especially ants, which are secured by a very extensile tongue, which is, however, much shorter than in the true ant-eatei's. Secreting them- selves in burrows and rarely coming out in the daytime, they are rarely to be seen in their native haunts, even though they be quite common. If by chance found out and chased they can dig into the soil so rapidly as to be out of sight when the pursuer has approached, and they can work in the ground as fast as the huntsman can. But their strength is rarely used against their enemies, and if caught they are wont to resign themselves to fate with but little attempt at resistance or retaliation. Their flesh is said to be quite savory, and the " hams " of an animal in good condition (and it is rare to find one otherwise) are regarded as a great delicacy. Their diet of ants, instead of injuring them for the table, is claimed to impart, in the state of formic acid, an agree- able and peculiar taste to the meat. Two species are well known, and have been long exhibited in zoological gardens. The Aard-vark of the Cape (Orycteropus capeiisis) has been longest and best known. Its hairy investiture is sparse, and contributes to the animal's resemblance to a hog — which it also approaches in size. It is distributed over a wide range in South Africa. An analogous species {Orycteropus cethicqncus) is an inhabitant of Southern Nubia and neighboring countries. It is better clothed with hair than the Cape species, and is otherwise distinguished from that animal, but resembles it in general appearance and size. In captivity the Orycteropodids conceal themselves in the straw strewed in their cages, and sleep during the hours of light, but are comparati\ely liveh' at night, and when food is introduced into their quarters they slowly bestir themselves, first pro- truding their long snout and ears, and finally come out to indulge in the repast afforded them. Sub-Oeder V. — Squamata. The Squamates are edentates as remarkable for their covering as the loricates, but this covering is of a very different character. Large, horny scales, resembling super- ficially the scales of some kinds of pine-cones, extend over most of the body and remind the observer rather of rejjtiles than mammals, but the belly and intervening spaces develop hair like that of other mammals. Teeth are entirely wanting. The placenta is diffuse and non-deciduate, as in many ungulates. The Pangolins, which form the family Maxid^, like others of the edentates, are peculiar in their mode of progression. The hind feet are but little modified, and are j^lantigrade and five-toed, but the fore feet are characteristic ; five digits are developed, all of which are broad, excepts the innermost, and of all the terminal joints are deeply cleft ; the third digit is much the longest, and next is the fourth, while tlie first, second, and fifth are successively (the last sometimes very much) redaced. But the chief peculiarity is in that the animal advances on its knuckles and with the claws bent in- wards or upwards. The head is coniform and the snout sub-cylindrical ; the ears are small and far apart ; the tail is elongated, very broad and continuous, without constric- tion from the trunk. EDENTA TES. 63 The elongated form and gradual tapering into the tail, combined with the longitu- dinal rows of leaf-like scales, short legs, and knuckle-walking, give the pangolins an unique appearance, and they may be at once singled out from all other animals. The species are peculiar to tropical Asia and Africa, and are insectivorous, feeding mainly on ants and termites. For this purpose their tongue is especially adapted, that organ being very large and vermiform, but flattened towards the extremity, and very extensile. When the forager has found an ant's nest he inserts his tongue, covered with a glutin- ous secretion which holds fast the insects, into the hole, which already exists or which he makes, and then withdraws it covered with living freight into the mouth. The front claws, as already indicated, are very strong and render the animal an efficient digger. They burrow rapidly in even quite hard ground, and generally remain in their holes in the daytime. Their feeding-time is as a rule the night. If one is approached by an enemy, he rolls himself up in a ball-like mass, with the snout between the legs, and witli the scales bristling outwards in every direction. The stomach is almost always the receptacle of small stones, which, it is supposed, have been swallowed to aid in the trituration of the food. It may be added that the stomach itself has thickened muscular walls and lining membrane, and "a special gland near the middle of the great curvature, consisting of a mass of complex secreting follicles, the ducts of which termi- nate in a common orifice." The popular name — pangolin — which has grown into use as a quasi generic designation of the species, is a Malayan word (Pangaling, Panggheling, or Pengolin), used specifically for the Mcmis {PhoUdotus) Javanus, and is descriptive of its ability to roll itself up into a ball. The technical name given by Linnteus is the supposititious singular of the Latin word for spirits or ghosts, — Manes, — and was imagined on account of the weird and unearthly appearance of the animal, or rather, perhaps, be- cause of its nocturnal habits and its slow wandering during the night. Tlie Manids are also frequently called scaly ant-eaters ; the reason therefor is obvious, but the term is somewhat objectionable, because it implies, or may at least be supposed to imply, a closeness of relation to the ant-eaters of South America, which does not exist. Seven or eight or even more species of Manids have been recognized by naturalists ; and these are so closely related as to have been united by most writers in a single genus, although by one zoologist (the late Dr. Gray of the British Museum), they have been distributed among no less than five genera and three tribes. Such a sub-division, how- ever, is entirely negatived by the comparative structural details of the respective species, but it will be convenient to consider them under three categories. The typical Manids, that is, those for which the generic name Manis has been universally retained, have a very long, slender tail, narrow scales, and the feet hairy. Two species have been found in Africa, the Manis longicauda, or long-tailed pangolin, and Manis tricuspis, or the Phatagin. The former has eleven longitudinal rows of scales of a dark-brown color, while the latter has as many as twenty-one rows, and the color of the scales is pale-brown. Both are inhabitants of Western Africa, Guinea, etc. Other species have also a long tail, although shorter than the first, but the scales are broad, and the feet are covered above with scales which extend to the toes. The name PJwIidotus has been appropriated to them, and at least four species are known, three of which occur in the Indian region and one in Africa. The African species, PhoUdotus giganteus, is the largest of its family, having a total length of nearly five feet, of which the tail forms less than half. The Oriental species are the P. indicus, which has a 64 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. wide range through India, the P. javanus, of Java and Sumatra, and the P. dalmann, of Noj'thern India, China, and Formosa. The Pholidotus javanus inhabits "hollow trees, feeds on ants [including termites] alone, of which its stomach contains thousands. It is a slow-moving animal, but very strong, and by means of its powerful prehensile tail (which is furnished with a little naked callosity) climbs tolerably well among rocks and dead trees. The tongue is exceedingly long, round, and fleshy, and is used to obtain its food by being laid aci-oss the tracks of ants, which stick to a glutinous secretion with which it is provided." Fig. 27. —Manls longicauda, long-tailed pangolin. Two individuals of the Manid of Ceylon (the Pholidotus javanus?), called in that island Caballaya, were at different times kept in confinement by Sir Emerson Tennant while resident there. One was about two feet long, and obtained from the vicinity of Kandy ; it was "a gentle and affection.ate creature, which after wanderhig over the house in search of ants, would attract attention to its wants by climbing up" its master's knees, laying hold of his leg by its prehensile tail. The other, more than double that length, was caught in the Jungle near Chilau, and brought to Sir Emerson Tennant in Colombo. " I had," says that gentleman, " always understood that the pengolin was unable to climb trees, but the one last mentioned frequently ascended a tree in my EDENTA TES. 65 garden in search of ants, and this it effected by means of its hooked feet, aided by an oblique grasp of the tail. The ants it seized by extending its round and glutinous tongue along their tracks. Generally speaking, they were quiet during the da}', and grew restless as evening and night apjiroached." A Manid inhabiting Eastern Africa is distinguished from all those hitherto referred to by its proportions and other characters. The tail is very broad, compared with other forms, and is rounded at its end ; the scales are broad and short, and the cen- tral ones do not continue on the tail ; the feet above are covered with scales down to the toes. But one species of this section is known, and has been named Smutsia tem- mincki, and occurs in Sennaar, Caffraria, Kordofan, Latakoo, and adjoining countries. It attains a length of about three feet. There still remain certain forms to be noticed which are no longer living, but which it is necessary to consider if we would understand the relations of the several types to each other. Some of these forms are as well known, so far as the osteology is concerned, as any recent ones, but others have been very imperfectly indicated, being known only through fragmentary remains. In the American hemisphere several extinct families have been recognized. In the miocene and pliocene ages, in North America, some edentates existed which have been noticed by Prof. Marsh under the family name, Moropodid^. Little, almost nothing in fact, is known of them, for only fragments have been found. But in later formations abundant remains have been gathered, which have enabled zoologists to reconstruct the skeletons of various species representing two peculiar families. The MErTATHERiiD^ were animals related to the sloths, and also, but to a much less degree, to the ant-eaters, and represented a more generalized type than either. They had teeth similar to those of the sloths as to constitution and number, but they were of a prismatic or quadrate form; their tail was very large, their pelvis unusually wide, the legs were but moderately long, and the feet peculiar. They varied in size, but were much larger than the existing sloths, and some attained elephantine dimensions. They were consequently not arboreal animals, but moved over the earth, although they must have presented an awkward appearance in so doing, for their fore feet were turned in- wards, and their weight was borne by the outer toe, which is supposed to have had a callous pad, while the claws were chiefly bent upon the under surface or palms. The life history of the Megatheriids is but imperfectly known. Remains have only been found in the post-tertiary deposits of the American continents, but these were then quite numerous in species and genera, and the largest species ranged over a large- jiortion of South as well as North America, and have been distinguished as Mega- therium americanum^ and M. mirabile. The Glyptodontid^ were mammals most nearly related to the existing armadillos, but which attained a much larger and even gigantic size ; they had also a more complete turtle-like carapace, that covering, instead of being divided into transverse bands, being a single undivided " shell," composed of very numerous polygonal scutes ; furthermore they possessed a ventral shield or plastron simulating that of a tortoise. Their tail was club-like, moderately long, very stout, and incased with rings of united and often knobbed scutella. The teeth were thirty-two in number, eight on each side in each jaw, and were severally contracted by two re-entering internal as well as external grooves, so that then- crowns presented three peninsular areas. (This peculiarity gained VOL. v.— 5 66 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. the name — glyptos, fluted, and odous, tooth — of the typical genus from Owen.) All these peculiarities were reinforced by others, and hence the Glyptodonts were isolated from all known tyjies as a very distinct family. But with all their common characters they manifested a wide range of variation, and about two-score of species have akeady been discovered, for which five genera are recognized by the most conservative natural- ists. The legs of all were shoit and robust and the feet elephantine, but they differed considerably in the develojiment of the digits of the fore feet ; some (the Glyptodon- tines) were deficient in the fifth toe, and others (the Hoplophorines) in the first. The Glyjitodonts existed in South America in the pleistocene age, and their bones have been chiefly found in the fluviatile beds of the Argentine Republic with those of Megatheriids. In the Old World remains of edentates have likewise been found, and in regions whence they have long since disappeared. Such remains have been chiefly obtained in France and Greece in deposits of miocene or middle tertiary age, but Gervais long ago indicated the existence of a supposed representative of the order in the eocene period. The remains hitherto obtained have been almost solely limb bones, but teeth have been also claimed for the fossils. The phalangeal bones most resembled those of the Manids, and it is supposed the extinct forms belonged to a generalized type near the line of descent for the existing pangolins. The names Ilacrotherium, Limocjni- theriuni and Anci/lotherhcm have been proposed for the fossils, and the family names, Maceotheeiid^ and Ancylothekiid^, have also been suggested. More informa- tion respecting these forms is needed. The correlation of the data derived from the consideration of the living as well as extinct edentates yields definite information as to the mutual relations of the several sub-orders, and a study of the osteology affords an excellent clew. An examination of the skeletons of the American edentates reveals a notable pecu- liarity of the hinder thoracic and the lumbar vertebrae. In addition to the articular processes, or zygcqMphyses, which connect the several vertebrte with the preceding and succeeding, as in ordinary mammals, there are other projections to the presacral ver- tebrae, which recijjrocally fit into each other and interlock the contiguous vertebras in a manner quite exceptional among veatebrates. These accessory articulations are weU exemplified in the Dasypodids and Myrmecophagids, as well as in the extinct Glyp- todontids and Megatheriids, and are also developed in the Bradypodids, although much more faintly than in the others. Their minor development in the sloths is doubtless the result of the mode of life, and is the co-ordinate of the slight strain on the back ; disuse or slight use has resulted in comparative atrophy of all the jsrocesses of the vertebrae and the muscles which are attached to them. A comparison of the skeletons of the African and Indian edentates becomes remark- able by the contrast with the correspon?«.. | or |; eg; i. % = \% or if = 28 or 26 (no other variation). For the ILjstricine series: — »». % ; pm. | ; c. g ; %. | = ^g = 20 (only varies to pm. % in one case). For the Murine series: — in. % ; pm. g, or § or |; c. g; i. § = f, "g", or \% = 16, 18, or 20 (only varies otherwise to m. \ in one case (total 12), to pm. % (total 28) in another case). For the Sdurine series: — m. §; pm. s or |; c. g ; /. 5 = \% or \~ = 20 or 22 (no other variation). It will be seen that the variability in any one formula (excepting the anomaly of m. I) is confined to the premolars ; that these only vary in one instance in the Hystricines ; and that the incisors only vary from 5 to | in the Leporines. The formula for a single anomalous fossil genus (Mesotherium, in which the incisors, moreover, are not adze-edged), completing an exhibit of rodent dentition, is: — in. f ; /)»?. | ; eg; i. |. ^ -i§ ^ 24. The rodent dentition is certainly characteristic, and indeed diagnostic, of the order ; yet the only absolutely unqualified expression to be used regarding its numerical ct)mposition is, there are no canines. In the perennial incisors, which would be tusks were they not perpetually ground down, and in the often prismatic and changeable molars, the dentition of these small quadru]ieds curiously resembles that of the huge elephant. Rodents are verj- pre- cocious in their teething, and some, as the Guinea-pig, cut and shed their milk-teeth before they are born, — which would be a great convenience in some other cases, seeing how mothers and children both suffer sometimes in dental crises. The form of the head of the under jawbone, which articulates with the skull, and that of its socket, are interesting in this connection, as they permit the incisors of either jaw to overlap those of the other, as is necessary in order that they may sharpen each other. For, in addition to such up-and-down, and such sidewise, jnovements as the jaw may execute, it also slides a little way back and forward. This is effected bj- the direc- tion of the long diameter of the articular head of the bone, or condyle (which is par- allel with the long axis of the skull, instead of transverse to that axis, as usual among quadrupeds), and by the shallowness of the glenoid cavity or socket which receives the condyle. Whatever the size of the eyes, and they vary much, their sockets, the orbital cavi- ties, always communicate openly with the temples, or temporal fossa?, the rim of the orbit being deficient behind. Though rodents are far from being witless animals, they belong to a lower series of mammals called Ineducabilia, from the comparatively small size and simplicity of tlte Ijrain, and conse(pieut low grade of intelligence on the whole. The cerel)rum, or great hemispheres of the brain proper, are small, uncovering much or all of the cerebellum or hind-brain; and the surface of the cerebrum is usually quite smooth, having at most a few shuple convolutions in some exceptional cases. There is a transverse commissure RODENTIA. 71 of the hemispheres, as in all placental mammals ; and the placentation is of the kind known as discoidal deciduate. The intestinal canal is extensive and much convoluted; there is a large ctecum (excejjt in one family) ; but the stomach appears simple, at any rate in comjjarison with its complexity of structure in most other herbivorous quad- rupeds. The structure of the car-parts indicates a high grade of auditory jjower; the sense of sight is also good, as a rule, though some of the burrowing rodents are literally as " bUnd as a mole," the eyes, in one species at least, being rudimentary and covered with the skin. The general configuration of the body, the proportions of the limbs, and other details, are endlessly varied; and, not to here pursue the subject into details, properly coming ujj further on, we may conclude by saying that a rabbit, a squirrel, a rat and a porcujnne severally illustrate the four leading modifications of structure which rodents of the present epoch exhibit. The very numerous rodents exhibit so much diversity in form that it becomes an interesting question, How may this large order be divided into lesser groups in a man- ner which shall indicate the true afKnities and relationships of its several components ? Many modes of classifying the Rodentia have been invented and applied to their arrangement in families and genera. The basis of a sound classification was laid down by Mr. Waterhouse in 1848, and subsequently elaborated ^dth care and success by the late Mr. E. R. Alston, whose untimely death left unusual promise unfulfilled. His arrangement is accepted by most naturalists with little modification, and will be closely followed in the present article. In this scheme, the peculiarities of the single fossil, 3Iesotherium, and of the existing hares and pikas (Leporidm and Lagomyidce) are considered to furnish, when contrasted with each other and with all other Rodentia col- lectively, a means of dividing the order into three sub-orders. The incisor dentition alone gives the clue to these divisions, as follows : — I. Upper incisors 2, lower 4 ; enormal or blunt-toothed Rodents . Sub-order Hebetidentata. II. Upper incisors 4, lower 2 ; siibnormal or double- toothed Rodents Sub-order Duplicidentata. III. Ufijier incisors 2, lower 2 ; normal or simple-toothed Rodents Sub-order Simplicidentata. Next comes the question, How may the gi'eat group of the simple-toothed normal rodents be classed with reference to one another? This is answered by considering tlie types of structure respectively exemplified by the squirrel, rat, and porcupine. Thus, any porcupine-like rodent is found to have the leg-bones (tibia and fibula) distinct from each other throughout, and this character is always associated with a jjceuliar shape of the lower jaw-bone ; with a single exception, the back teeth are | (ni. f ; pin. I) ; while, however various the general aspect may be, the muzzle is hairy, and there is a sigmoid or otherwise linear shape of the nostrils. These and other charac- ters mark such animals as a natural alliance, which has been called the Hystricine series {Hjjstricomorjyha) . Again, any rat, mouse, or related rodent is found to have the tibia and fibula united into one bone in the lower portion of their extent, and to have a special shape of the jaw-bone, unlike that of the porcupine ; the back teeth, however variable, are normally only a ; and the muzzle is naked to some extent, with a cleft upper lip and comma- shaped nostrils. The very numerous rodents which show these characters, almost without exception, constitute the Murine series {Myomorpha). 72 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. Once more, the squirrels and their relatives display a third set of characters, consist- ing essentially in the combination of such leg-bones as the Hystricines have, with the shape of the jaw of the Murine* ; the back teeth always more than |, which is the normal murine number, yet the muzzle finished off as in Murines, nevei- as in Hystricines. It is this combination of characters which enables us to range them all in a Sciuriue series ( Sciuromorpha) . We will now proceed to a consideration of these sub-orders and series. Sub-Ordee I. — RoDENTiA Hebetidentata. Though it may be a question, whether the fossil animal upon which this sub-order and the family MESOTHERiiDyE have been established is truly a rodent, we give it the benefit of the doubt, especially ais there is no other order to which it can be assigned. This gigantic rodent in- hal)ited the pampas of La Plata in South America during the pliocene age ; it was discovered by M. Bravard, and named Meso- thcrvum crixtntum by M. Serres in 1857. The upper incisors are two, as usual ; tlie under are four, the outer ones quite small • and none of them present chisel-edges, wearing down more like the nippers of a horse, in consequence of being enamelled alike on both faces. The grinders are five above and four below on each side, two of the former and one of the latter behig presumably premolars ; they are all rootless, simply constructed, with one re-entering enamel-fold ; their series is curved, with the convexity outward. To these dental characters, unique in Rodentia, is added another, equally exceptional in this order; the long axis of the condyle of the lower jaw, and consequently that of the glenoid fossa, being crosswise instead of lengthwise. The skull is very massive, with enormous sagittal and occipi- tal crests, the latter continuous ^ith the ridge of the heavy zygoma, which rises behind as high as the top of the skull, and then sinks deeply as the malar passes for- ward to the lacrymal. There are a large bony palate; postorbital processes; long i)ar- occipital processes ; perfect clavicles ; a fibulo-calcanoal articulation ; five digits on each foot ; and the claws were probably stout and hoof-like. Alston remarks of the singu- lar animal that its affinities to the more aberrant hoofed quadrupeds, especially Toxo- dontia, must not be overlooked ; and that it apj)ears to be a survivor to pliocene times (when Rodentia had become well-established) of a much earlier type, which represented Fig. 30. — SkuU of Mesotherhim cristatum. about one-fourth natural size. RODENTIA. 73 an era when the rodents were not clearly marked off from their allies. "In fact, 3Iesotheriuni seems to continue into the order Glires, [Rodentia] that line of affinity which Prof. Flower has pointed out as extending from the typical Ungulates through Jlyracodon, Ilomalodontotherium, Nesodoii, and ToxodonP Stjb-Oeder II. — Rodentia Duplicidentata. Turning at once from the uncouth and monstrous rodent of the pliocene just noted, we enter upon the second sub-order of the Rodentia, consisting of the single series of the hare-like or Leporine gnawers, than which no animals arc more familiar or better known to most persons. There being but one alliance in this sub-order, the series LAGO- MORPHA is practically coincident with the sub-order Duplicidentata. It contains only two families, Leporida and Lagomyidaj, each of a single living genus, Lepus and Lagomys ; while fossil genera of each, such as Paheolaijus and Titanomys, carry our knowledge of these forms back in geologic time to the miocene period. There are some forty living species, chiefly of the Leporidse. The Lagomorpha are distinguished by the presence of four incisors in the upper jaw. At an early age, indeed, there are six, but the outer one on each side is soon shed. The extra pair are smaller than the principal middle ones, and placed directly behind them, so that onlj' two ajipear in front, as usual in the order. There are only two in the lower jaw, as usual. These teeth are enamelled to some extent behind as before, so that they do not wear to as sharp an edge as those of other rodents. The grinders vary in number, fi-om J in Lagomyidte to | in Leporidae. The skull is remarkable for its numerous vacuities, among them an opening between the eye-sockets of opposite sides ; the bony palate is reduced to a stout narrow bar across the molar region ; the tibia and fibula are united below, and the latter articulates with the cal- caneum. By these principal characters, to which some of less consequence might be added, the Lagomorjjha may be readily distinguished from other Rodentia. The two families which compose this series may be discriminated with equal facility. The dentition of the Family Leporid.e, embracing the hares and rabbits, presents the largest number of teeth in the order, the formula for the adult being : i. f:^, pm. |:|, m. 5:|, = \% = 28. The milk dentition is i. ^;|, dm. r.g = igS = 18. The grinders are all alike rootless, and mostly tri-laminate ; the incisors are less curved and less deeply rooted than usual in the order, and less colored in front, or entirely white. The skull is large, compressed behind, with convex frontal profile; the sides of the upper jaw are sieve-like, from a multitude of perforations ; tiie frontal bone develops large flaring supra-orbital processes; the zygoma is nearly straight, and but little produced behind the glenoid fossa ; the nasal bones and orbits are large. The coronoid process of the lower jaw is rudhnentary, as such being represented by a thin narrow plate, and the angle of the jaw is a broad plate, not well distinguished from the ascending ramus. The collar-bones are present, but incomplete ; the acromion process of the scapula is forked ; the tibia and fibula are united, as in murine rodents. There are various other str\ictural characters. The well-known external peculiarities are numerous, prominent among them being the disproportionate length of the hind limbs, and the size of the ears, which approximately equal or exceed the head in length. The gait is saltatorial when the animals are at full speed, and the erect attitude is fre- quently assumed, the whole length of the instep (metatarsus) being applied to the 74 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. ground. The soles are furry ; the fore feet have five digits, the hind only four ; the former are never used like hands to convey food to the moutli, as is done by so many other rodents. There are no cheek-pouclies, but the inside of tlie moutli is partly furry. The nose-pad is prominent and very mobile, and the upper lip so deeply cleft that one of the sad deformities of the human race receives the popular name of " hare-lip." The head is somewhat globose, with large full eyes, which develo]) a third eyelid at the inner corner. The tail is short, though really longer than it appears to be, as it is bushy and habitually recurved over the rump. The male organs are per- manently external ; there is a peculiar perinagal sac, into which the ducts of certain glands enter. Tlie mammas are numerous — about five pairs ; the uterus is completely double, and its traces in the male are evident. The length of the sjiinal column in the lumbar region is remarkable, and the vertebi'iB of the loins are about seven in num- ber, with long transverse processes slanting forward. The radius and ulna are com- plete, but do not j)ermit rotation tif the fore foot. The skin is remarkably thin and tender; the fur soft and woolly; neither the hide nor the pelage possesses much value, exce]it to the animal itself. Several extinct genera and species of hares ai-e described, chiefly fi'om the miocene and later formations of North America ; but only one of these, Pakeolagus, is suiB- ciently well-known. The existing species, to the number of thirty, perhaps, are so closely related to one another as to be properly referred to the single genus Lepiis. They inhabit most parts of the world, but are absent from the Australian region. One species, the polar hare {L. timidus var. arcticus) dwells amidst the desolation of the most hyperborean regions. South America is the poorest in hares, having but one small S]iecies, called the Tapeti {L. brasiliensis). India and Africa have several. The family is best developed in North America, where no fewer than twenty species and varieties occur, illustrating the whole range of variation of size and form to which the genus attains, froni the smallest and chubbiest " rabbit," to the largest and most "raw-boned " hare ; as well as all those differences of habit which are impressed upon the creatures by their surroundings, — some burrowing in underground retreats, others squatting in their " forms " in scanty herbage ; some inhabiting dense swamps, marshes, and cane- brakes ; others woodland and dry tangle ; others the sterile wastes of prairie or desert, and others, again, the recesses of Alpine solitudes. The preponderance of species is largely in the Northern Hemisphere; and one at least, the arctic form of the common Zi. timidi/s, is of circumpolar distribution, the American animal being only varietally distinguished from the Europa?o-Asiatic. The two best-known sjiecies — those which illustrate fairly the little difference which obtains between Hares and Rabbits — are X. timidus and X. cuniculus of Euro]ie. The latter is the rabbit, j)ro])er]y so-called, and the only member of the family to which the name is strictly applicable. The name of "cony" has often been applied to the animal. This is from the Latin cunictdus, noting the burrowing of the rabbit in holes, and reapj>ears in many modern languages. But the Biblical animal, which our translators saw fit to call " cony," is now supposed to be a very different species, the Ilt/rax, of the order Hyracoidea. The rabbit is rather small, some sixteen or seventeen inches long from nose to root of tail, with comparatively short ears and limbs; grayish- brown, the back of the neck rufous, and the upper side of the tail blackish; the under parts white, and no black space on the ear. It is a burrower, as its name implies, preferring light, dry, sandy soil ; but is able to accommodate itself to a great variety of surroundings. This animal is supposed to be indigenous to Southern Europe, especially RODENTIA. 75 Spain, tlie very name of wliicli country is believed to signify the " land of conies." In some European countries the creature is so abundant as to become a pest. It is very prolific, having se^•cral litters a year, and bringing forth five to eight \o\ing, ■\\'hich are born blind, naked and helpless, in a warm nest luider ground, furnished with fur from the parent's own body. This animal has been trans])orted to various parts of the world, even to the island of Terra del Fuego : it readily naturalizes anywhere, and multiplies prodigiously. It is the original of the various breeds of pet rabbits, which Fig. '61, — Lepus itmidus, hare. are found of all colors, and otherwise greatly modified in size, form, and kind of pelage. Some breeds attain an immense size ; others acquire a long, fleecy fur, as the Angora ; in others, the large ears fall down in various ways, known to rabbit-fanciers as the horn-lop, half-lop, oar-lop, and perfect lop. Some furnish the best cases of alliinism, established and jierpetuated, being snowy-white, with pink eyes; others are piebald, or silver-gray, or black. This brings uji the subject of the natural change of pelage of some species from 76 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. colored to white. However variously interpreted by naturalists, according to their resjjective views of species, the facts would appear to be as follows : The common hare of Europe, Asia, and America (Z. tiniidus) has an immense range ; it varies with its geographical distribution ; those individuals which turn white, or nearly white, in winter, are called varying hares (X. variabilis) in the Old World, and polar hares {L. arcticus) in the New. The most perfect instances are those of the latter, in which the animal becomes snow-white, with black tips to the ears. More frequently, in the Old "World, the change is not com])lete, there remaining taivny shades on various parts, particularly the ears and limbs. L. timidus proper — that is to say, the common hare, in latitudes where it does not turn in winter — is nearly two feet long ; the ear nearly five inches high ; the hind foot about five and two-thirds inches ; the tail, including the hairs, four J^'IG. Z'^, — Li:i)U6 aintficauii , \ u 1 iii li, Yuilij hi \ mu^ I inches ; the fur of the upjjer parts mixed black and bi'ownish-yellow ; the toj) of tlie tail, and the ti]) of the ears, black ; the back of the neck and outside of the limbs rufous; inner side of the limbs, under side of the body and tail, white, Sucli an animal as this, in regions whei'C it turns white or partly so, becomes rather smaller and more compact, with shorter ears and limbs, and heavier pelage, which is lighter colored in summer than that of i. tiniidus proper. This is X. ^'^ variabilis,^'' occurring fi-om the Al]is, Ireland, Scotland, etc., and through northerly j^arts of Asia, to the Arctic ocean ; while in North America the same animal recurs, of superior size, and perfect purity of winter color, as the Polar Hare, X. "f/lacialis''^ (X. timidus var. arcticus). This is the only instance of specific identity of hares of the 01<1 and New World. In North America X. timidus is replaced by a perfectly distinct species of varying hare, X. americanus, of extensive distribution in northerly, alpine, and middle portions of the country, from Atlantic to Pacific. It is a " varying " hare in two senses. It RODENTIA. 77 runs into several geographical races — var. americanus being northerly, of genei-al dis- tribution ; var. virginianus more southerly, in the Eastern United States ; var. loasfi- infftoni, of Oregon and Washington Territories; and var. bairdi, of the Rocky Mountains of the United States, as far south at least as Colorado. Each of these is distinguished in summer by the shade of the coloration, and each whitens to some extent in winter, though not completely. There is only one other North American hare which whitens in winter. This is a perfectly distinct species, the Northern Prairie Hare (Z. campestris) of the prairies of the West, as far south as Colorado at least, and north into Britisli America. It is dis- FlG. 33. — Ltfpus comptjslris, iiurtUtni prairiu liiire. tinguished, among other things, by having most of the upper as well as the under side of the tail white ; the general coloration is pale sandy, with black ear-tips, and the winter bleaching is extensive, though never perfect. This is one of the largest of the hares, and may be taken to illustrate the remarkable group of several Western species so well known as Jackass Hares, or Jack-rabbits, from their size, and length of limbs and ears. Other species of this kind, to which the same name is applied, are X. callotis of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona, and L. californicics of California. In these the tail is black above, and the pelage is never white. The speed of these great prairie hares, and especially the great distance they clear at a bound, is marvellous; while their attitudes and general aspect are no less singular. Like most large Leporidag, these do not burrow, but construct a "form" in the herbage, in which they squat; though all of them take to holes when coursed by hounds. Another large species, 78 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. but of very different character, is the Swamp Hare of the Southern States (i. aquaticus). Leaving now the long-limbed creatures of great stature, we turn to some smaller and "bunchier" kinds, more nearly resembling the European rabbit. The best known of these — one too well-known to require extended description — is the Wood liabbit, or " Molly Cotton-tail " {L. sylvaticus), so abundant in the United States. There is an apparently endless question whether this is a " liare " or a "rabbit." We have already seen that " rabbit " is a proper name, applicable in strictness to L. cunicnlus alone, but, in this country at least, it has lost its original significance, and come to be applied indiscriminately to nearly all our numerous species, — even to the very largest of them, like X. canipestris ; being too firmly established in our vernacular to be eradicated. The question is, therefore, an idle one. But it may be observed, that if the name Fig. 34. — iepiis sylvatlcus, wood-rabbit, Molly Cotton-tail. " rabbit " be eligible for any of our species, it is most apt for those small, short-limbed and very prolific ones, which burrow more or less habitually, like the cotton-tail ; these being thus most like X. cimiculus. Various animals of this kind inhabit North Amer- ica ; even the South American tapeti belongs to the same large group of small species. The only one of them in the Atlantic States, besides the cotton-taU, is the marsh rabbit, or marsh hare, as you please, — inhabiting the coast line of the Soutliern States. This is L. pcdustris ; a very distinct species, much modified from L. sylvaticus by its aquatic habits. In the great West, a very abundant and almost universally distributed species, on the prairie, desert, and especially in sage brush country, is the little creature everywhere known as the Sage Rabbit (Z. artemesia). It would appear to be only a variety of JL. sylvaticus, somewhat changed by its surroundings. Other species and varieties occur in the Southwest. Numerous well-marked forms of various regions of the Old World must be passed over. But probably the North American ones which we have noticed sufficiently illus- trate the whole of them. The larger kinds, as a rule, are less prolific than the smaller ones, averaging probably less than five at a birth ; they are apparently better developed RODE NT I A. 79 at birth, and produced rather in forms than in burrows. The same element of size and length of limb also aj^pears in the gait of hares. In all the movements are peculiar, in consequence of the shape of the body. When moving slowly, the fore feet are held close together, and may be advanced one after the other ; when, after a certain elonga- tion of the body, the wide-spread hind limba are brouglit far forward, with a peculiar doubling under of the body, and arching of the back. As the speed increases, it becomes more of a gallop, the long-barrelled creatures alternately extending and flex'- ing the trunk, by the powerful muscles of the back and loins advantageously acting as tractors upon unusually long processes of the dorsal and lumbar vertebrfe. But the' smaller species have a gait which may be best described as " scuttling," strikingly dif- ferent in appearance from the prodigiously free, high, and elastic progress of the jack- rabbits, such as L. camjoestris and its allies. We may also note a tendency of the smaller species to become gregarious, while the great ])rairie hares are thoroughly solitary animals. In fact, the whole economy of these animals seems to be very nicely graded, on the whole, from one extreme of stature and length of limbs and ears to the other; notable exceptions, however, are found in such .species as X,. palustris and Zi. aquaticus, which, though far apart in ph3-sical characters, have similar aquatic habits. The food, though various in detail, is substantially alike in all these congeneric ani- mals, being strictly vegetable ; succulent herbs, whether root, branch, or stalk, fur- nishing their usual fare. Though some species do much injury by gnawing and even girdling trees, this is exceptional. The dentition is weak (for rodents), and not to be compared in gnawing efficiency with that of many Rodentia, such as the beavers and the Arvicolinaj. The conformation of the fore limbs prevents the use of the paws as hands, which is the rule in this order of animals. Aside from their employment in progi'ession, the fore feet are scarcely called into requisition, except for striking in the weak combats of hares with their kind, or in the stamping and "drununing" they indulge in moments of excitement. Possessing no courage, little cunning, and able to defend themselves against only the least menacing danger, it is well for this weak and ineffectual race that they are endowed with keenness of eye and ear, and extraordinary swiftness of foot. The large eyes glance in every direction ; the great ears turn inquiringly to every quarter; the creatures are always on the alert, and become panic-striken at the first alarm. Their strategy is nothing more than to s'lt motionless in their form, in hopes that danger, however imminent, may pass by ; or to double on their tracks when hotly pursued. More insidious foes than man with dog and gun, and the whole array of carnivorous beasts, bu'ds, and reptiles which pursue them, are the numerous parasites, — ticks, bots, and especially tapeworms, — which infest their attenuated thin-skinned bodies ; and sometimes grievous epidemics of some unknown disease sweep them off by thousands. Yet they hold their own; and though their lot is not a hajjpy one from any human standpoint, one has only to watch hares gamlioling on the greenswai-d in the moonlight, unconscious of jieril, to feel that there are joyous moments in the lives of these timorous children of the earth. Ascending mountains in many parts of the Northern Hemisphere to a height at which hares usually disappear, one is likely to encounter the Pikas, — poor relations of theirs. Sharp, squeaking notes resound from the rocks, and soon a glim])S0 may be had of a curious little creature, seeming more like a rat or guinea-pig than a rabbit, six or eight inches long, low-limbed, thick-bodied, with large rounded ears, and apparently 80 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. no tail. Tliese are the Pikas, " Conies " " Chief Hares," and Crying Hares, as they are variously called, — all of the genus Lafjomys, tlie only living one of the family Lago- MYiD^. The species are few,' and apparently all closely related ; they chiefly inhabit the boreal and alpine regions of Asia. Representative ones are the Europa30-Asiatic L. alpinus ; the Asiatic JL. ogotona ; and the North American L. priiiceps. Though outwardly so unlike hares in general appearance and economy, these little mountaineers betray their lagomorphic relations in numerous technical characters. Like hares, they ha\e four upper front teeth ; but the upjier grinders are reduced by one on each side, the dental formula of Lagomys being i. f ;f, pm. f:f, tn. §:§ := i| := '26 instead of 28. (In the miocene genus, Titanomys^ the grinders are reduced to f :^.) The skull is more depressed, not so contracted behind, and lacks the extensive perforations of that of Lcporidie, as well as the supra-orbital processes ; the zygoma is produced backward beyond the glenoid fossa ; the coronoid process of the mandible is repre- sented by a small tubercle. The incisors are deeply grooved, and notched at the end. The clavicles are complete. The hind limbs are not disproportionally lengthened, and progression is therefore like that of ordinary rodents, as the rat, for examjjle. The ears are large, but flat and orbicular ; the eyes very small ; the whiskers long and copious. The paws have four perfect fingers and a rudimentary thumb, which, however, bears a claw like the rest ; the feet are four-toed ; both palms and soles are densely furry, with naked callous pads at the ends of all the perfect digits. The muzzle is entirely hairy, with cleft lip. The pikas have been called " tailless hares," the tail being scarcely visible in life — a mere pencil of hairs, not held recurved. On the whole, the aspect of these curious little creatures is more like that of guinea-pigs than of hares. The fur is soft and dense, of subdued, blended coloration. The American Pika, or "Little Chief" Hare (i.joriwceps), so-called from some notion of the Indians respecting it, is one of the best-known species, and may serve to illus- trate the whole genus. It averages seven inches in length, with the tail to the end of the hairs scarcely an inch longer ; the ear about an inch high and wide ; the head two inches long; the forepaw 0.75 of an inch; the hind foot 1.20. The sexes are alike; the pelage on the upper parts is grayish-black for most of the length of the individual hairs, which are then ringed with yellowish, grayish, or pale-brown, and finally tijjped with black, producing a dark grizzled color, which, on the under parts, gives way to a muddy whitish or ochrey, in which the plumbeous roots of the hairs appear ; the eai-s are blackish, with a white rim ; the whiskers black. This quaint little creature is found in colonies nearly throughout the mountains of the West, as far south as New Mexico and Arizona. In these latitudes it inhabits only the highest ranges, at or little below timber-line, and thence to the limit of vegetation ; but as we proceed northward we find it comes down to four thousand feet at latitude 49°, and still further in Britisli America. The favorite haunts are the masses of rocky debris at the heels of cliffs, Avherc the ani- mals find safe hiding-places among the boulders, and sometimes congregate in large numliers, making known their presence by squeaking notes which seem to issue from under ground, and are very deceptive as to distance. Though timid, they are unsus- picious of danger, and may frequently be seen 23erched upon the rocks, uttering their ])eculiar crying notes, or foraging quietly in grassy spots for their food, of which the provident creatures lay up great stores in their rocky granaries. Large stocks of prov- ender, consisting of hay and other herbage, are often accumulated, probably by the work of more than one individual. Peproduction takes place in May and June, and about four young are produced in a grassy nest, among or near the rocks. It is curious to RODE NT I A. 81 see these quaint little quadrupeds issue from the rocks, and come inching along with a halting, jerky gait, advancing a few steps, then stopping to reconnoitre — • their legs heing so short that the creatures seem to move by some unseen machinery, like toy automata. Thus advancing, they gain a good post of observation on the edge of a rock, where they squat, throw up the head and ei-ect the ears, while the belly contracts Fig. 35.- l..,./.,„iy^ i> 'ji:i, .\iinTi<.';iu pika, "Little Clii visibly as the abrupt and explosive squeaking notes are, as it were, jerked out of their little bodies. The miners and hunters in the West know these oddities as "conies" and " starved rats." Sub-Order III. — Rodentia Simplicidentata. Now leaving behind the rodents which have more than two incisors above or below, we reach the series HYSTRICOMORPHA, or Porcupine-like Rodents, with the nor- mal formula, i. f , which obtains in all the remaining families of this vast order. As explained in the beginning, the Simple-toothed Rodents are divisible into three series, according to types of structure represented by a porcupine, a rat, and a squirrel, respect- ively. The reader would, however, gain a very erroneous idea if he supposed that an animal to belong to the Hystricomorpha must necessarily resemble a porcupine in gen- eral aspect. The term simply implies agreement in certain essential particulars with that structure which a porcupine presents. A beaver is not more unlike a squirrel, or a mouse more unlike a jerboa, than are the numerous members of the Hystricomorpha dissimilar to one another in superficial respects. No fewer than seven distinct families, with numerous genera, compose this series. Any member of the series may be recognized by the persistence of the fibula as a separate bone from the tibia, in connection with certain cranial characters. The angular portion of the mandible springs from the outer side of the bony covering of the inci.sor ; the coronoid process is small, and the condylar low ; there is no distinct post-orbital process (except in one genus, GhcBtomxjs) ; and other peculiarities of the skull might be added. Throwing out one genus {Cteno- VOL. v.— 6 82 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. dactylus), which lacks premolars, the dental formula is the same throughout, being i. \-_\,p')n. \'.\, m. |;| = \% = 20. The muzzle is hairy, usually uiicleft, with curvilinear nostrUs. In external form there is the utmost diversity ; from the great swinish capybara, largest of living rodents, to the delicate chinchilla; from the clumsy, prickly porcupine to various agile and furry creatures ; while all modes of life — arboreal, terrestrial, aquatic — are exemplified. Tlie hystricine rodents swarm in all their variety in the forests and on the pampas of South America, where they are among the most characteristic members of the mammalian class, focussing in Brazil. Excepting four remarkable out- lying genera of OctodontidiB {Ctenodactylus, Pectinator, Petromys, and Aulacodus), which are Ethio])ian, and the Old World porcupines of the genera Hystrix and Athericra, — the entire series of Hystricomorphs is absolutely confined to North and South America, and the West Indies ; and even in the latter there are but three species, while only two inhabit North America. In geologic time, the series stretches back to the eocene. The fossil genera are alsb nearly all American ; several have been described, thougli none appear to indicate families distinct from those now existing, and some of the genera are identical with those which have survived to the present day. We will pass the families in re\iew, which, however, must be brief, as we can only dwell ujjon some leading form of each. The gigantic Water Cavy, or Cajiybara {Hydrochcerus capyharci)., is the type and only living representative of the family Hydroch^rid.e, distinguished by certain cranial and dental peculiarities, but otherwise agreeing with the Caviidte. This animal is by far the largest of existing rodents, attaining a length of over four feet, and a stature of some twenty inches. Its massive form, huge, flat, blunt head, and long, coarse, and scanty hair, together with the hoof-like claws, are swinish features peculiar to this great clumsy " water-pig." The limbs are short and stout ; the ears and eyes small ; the muzzle is remarkably broad ; the tail a mere stump ; the general color is brownish, becoming paler on the under parts. The weight may be a hundred pounds or more. The Car- pinchos, as they are called by the natives, frequent the lakes and water-courses of tlie greater part of South America, but especially Brazil, living generally in small com- panies in the heavy vegetation of the banks, and taking to the watei- on alarm, where they swim and dive with ease, sometimes showing only the muzzle above the surface. The female is said to transport her young on her back. According to Mr. Darwin, the young are from one to four in number ; others say five or six. These animals have little to fear, except from the jaguar or jnnna, of which they are the frequent prey. Their flesh being indifferent, they are not mucli hunted, and, in regions where they are little molested, sometimes become so tame that one may ap]iroach them within arm's length before they dash into the water with their peculiar cry, half-bark, half-snort. At least one member of the family Caviid.e is well known to every one under the misleading name of guinea-pig, universally a]i])lied to the domesticated animals, prob- ably by confounding Guinea with Guiana ; for all the cavies are South American. The family is characterized among its allies by the comparatively short incisors and other dental and cranial features. The clavicles are imperfect, and commonly said to be want- ing. The tail is rudimentary, or very short ; the fore feet are four-toed, the hind three- toed, both terminating in somewhat hoof-like claws ; the upper lip is not cleft ; the general form is different in the two genera, Dolichotis and Cavia, which compose the family. In some cases at least, if not in all, the young are remarkably precocious, shedding their milk-teeth before they are born. OS RODENTIA. 83 Tlie Patagouian Cavy (Dolichotis patachonica) is a remarkable animal, with rather long ears and limbs, and an obvious, though very short, tail — altogether the most hare- like member of the family, resembling an overgrown rabbit as much as the capybara does a pig. The general aspect is rather like that of an agouti (of the next family but one) than of a cavy. Its length is from two and a half to three feet, and its standing height about a foot ; the weight twenty or thu-ty pounds. The thick, crisp fur is rusty yellow- ish on the sides and limbs, gray above, blackening on the rump, where there is a trans- verse white band ; the under parts are white. This singular animal abounds on the sterile plains of Patagonia, south to about 48°, and in the opposite direction reaches the La Plata country. It is shy and watchful, and generally observed at a distance, when two or three may be seen together, hopjnng leisurely along in single file. It lives in burrows, either excavated by itself or by the viscacha, where its young, generally two in number, are brought forth. The genus Cavia includes munerous species, more or less like the common Guinea- pig in form, though none of the wild ones resemble the piebald (black, white, and tawny) individuals commonly seen in confinement. These are commonly supposed to be the modified descendents of the Restless Cavy (C. aperea), though by some described as distinct, under the name of C. cobaya. As piebald individuals were certainly kno^\m as such to Aldrovandus, writing not long after the discovery of South America, Dallas argues that the Restless Cavy, if the same as C. cobaya, must have been long domesticated in America prior to its introduction into Europe. It is stated by Rengger, however, that Apereas of the fifth or sixth generation from a single couple, domesticated for seven years, showed no sign of changing from their feral colors. The Rock Cavy of Brazil ( C. rupestris), the Mountain Cavy of Bolivia (C. boliviensis), and the Southern Cavy ( C. aiistndis) of Patagonia, are species of a different section of the genus from C. aperea. In domestication, the guinea-pig is probably the most prolific of mammals ; the periods of gestation and lactation being remarkably brief the litters large, and procreation almost continual. A single genus and species, Dinomys braiiicki, of which only one specimen is known, is the basis of the lately established family Dixomyid.e, which combines in so remarkable a manner the characters of several groups of the hystricine series, as to serve in some sort as a connecting link between the cavies, agoutis, chinchillas, and octodons. Both fore and hind limbs are four-toed, with somewhat hoof-like nails ; but from the paca, which it closely resembles in outward characters, it recedes by certain osteological and dental characters in the direction of the chinchillas, and some of the Octodontidfe. It is about two feet long, with a bushy tail nine inches long ; in color a grizzled gray, from intimate mixture of white hairs among black ones, but adorned with two white stripes, and many white spots on the back and the sides, as in the paca, which, on the whole, it most resembles ; the pelage is harsh ; the body stout ; the ears and limbs are short ; and the upper lip is cleft, contrary to the rule in Hystri- comorpha. The only imlividual known was procured on IMontaiia de Vitoc, in Peru ; nothing has been learned of its habits, nor has it a known vernacular name. The Dasypedctid^e is the last family of the four South American ones which have hoof-like claws, and remind us more or less forcibly of pigs, as we have seen already in the case of the cavies and the capybara. As one author has remarked, the resem- blance of the agoutis to the little musk-deer is still closer. The general form is rather 84 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. slender, especially in the limbs, which are of moderate length ; the ears are short ; the tail is very short, or quite rudimentary. The fore feet are five-toed. The two genera which compose the family are distinguished, among several external characters, by the number of toes of the hind feet — five in Calogeyiys, three in Dasyprocta. The skull of the Paca {Ccelogemjs joaert) is a curiosity. The name of the genus, de- rived from the peculiarity, signifies " hollow-cheek," but in the very opposite of the sense we usually attach to the term ; for, instead of being sunken, the cheeks are remarkably plump. The hollowness is in the bone itself ; the cheekbone (malar and continuous malar process of the maxillary) being extraordinarily inflated and excavated, and the outer surface being roughened in a peculiar manner. This apparent monstrosity is unique among mammals, and only surpassed by the state of the skull of Lophiomys (see beyond), which is still more anomalous, thougli in a different way. The cavity in the bone is lined with mucous membrane, and communicates with the mouth by a small opening. As far as being a side cavity connected with the mouth is concerned, the structure is a cheek-pouch ; but being excavated in solid bone, it can hardly be used as many rodents use their pouches, for the reception of food. No food has been found in it, and the function of the singular structure is unknown. The possessor of this apparatus is an animal about two feet long, stouter-bodied than an agouti, with coarse, close-set liair, of a variable brownish color above, and white below, the sides with several longitudinal white bands, or rows of spots, or both ; the head is large, broad and obtuse ; the tail a mere fleshy tubercle ; the inner toe on each foot, and its nail, very small, the others stouter and hoof-like. It ranges in Central and South America from Guatemala to Paraguay, east of the Andes. It is somewhat nocturnal, spending the day mostly in its underground retreats in the forests, and especially along water. Its burrows are several feet in depth, doubtless excavated by the animal itself. Tlie female is said to produce only one or two young, though the mamiuse are two pairs, pectoral and inguinal. Numerous species of agoutis have been described, but the propriety of retaining some of them in the system is dubious. There are probably about eight, of which the Yellow-rumped Agouti {Dasyprocta agiiti) is the best-known and most abundant; Azara's Agouti {D. azarce) is another ; while a smaller species than either, notable for inhabiting some of the West India islands, as well as South America, is the Acouchy (Z>. acouchy). The last-named is also distinguished by having quite a tail, some two inches long, — that member in the other species being rudimentary. Resembling the paca to some extent, these animals are smaller, the largest only some eighteen or twenty inches long, and not so stout-bodied; there are only three toes on the hind feet, and no cranial monstrosity. Lack of a tail, and the unusual length of the hairs falling over the rump, confer a singular ap))earance, as if the creatures were tucked in under behind. The coloration is not broken up into spots, but is generally some shade of brown, paler or white below, set off with rich yellowish, or even reddish, on the rump and some of the under parts. The agoutis inhabit woodland, but make frequent excur- sions into open country ; they are agile creatures, running swiftly and -with an easy motion. They pass much of their time in their retreats during the day, but at night ramble in search of food, usually leaving and regaining their homes by the same path- way, which they gradually wear for themselves. They eat almost anytliing of a veget- able nature, and are readily kept in confinement. The usual number of young is said to be two. a RODENTIA. 85 Continual surprises are in store for the student of tlie Rodentia, who soon discovers with what cunning and ingenuity Nature elaborates similar models into the most diverse shapes, and fits creatures essentially alike in structure for very different modes of life. IMystification will certainly occur to one who for any reason pays insufficient attention Fig. 36. — Dasyprocta aguti, yellow-rumped agouti, one-fourth natural size. to those dry details from which one might turn with weariness, were it not for the assurance that such technical characters are the only safe guide in classification. For instance, in the Chinchillid^ we have a group of pretty little furry creatures, whose soft coats we are proud to possess and wear ourselves • — • squiiTel-like animals of grace and agility, yet actually forming a link between the stout pig-toed rodents we have just considered and the uncouth prickly porcupines, which come next. The chinchilla family is composed of three very distinct genera, Ziagostomus, Ziagidium, and Chiiv- cliilla ; which differ from one another in the number of their toes, and several more abstruse characters. In all the tail is of moderate length, or quite long and more or less bushy ; the fore limbs are small and neat, with perfect clavicles, and the paws are serviceable as hands ; the hinder limbs are elongated; the ears are prominent, in all but IjCigostomus very large. These animals inhabit both mountain and jjlain. The stout, able-bodied Viscacha {Ziagostomus trichodactylus) bears exactly the same relation to the delicate chinchillas that the terrestrial marmot-squirrels {Spermo- 2)/nlus) sustain to their graceful arboreal cousins (Scmrus). It also plays, in South America, exactly the same part that the North American Spermophiles do in their own country ; being, in fact, a terrestrial and fossorial chinchilla, whose burrows dot the ground of the pampas, and harbor owls of the genus Speotyto. The viscacha is nearly, or about, two feet long from nose to root of tail, this member being ciglit or ten inches in length, bushy and tufted ; there are four digits on the fore feet, but only three on the hind. It bears no distant resemblance in form to some of the larger Spermophiles ; the color is gray, mottled and ijencilled with darker, white or jellowish on the under 86 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS parts, the head curiously striped with black and white, — the black stripe in the male formed of stiff bristly hairs. The ears are of moderate length. We cannot forbear to extract the following from Mr. Darwin's Journal : " The Viscacha is well known to form a prominent feature in the zoology of the Pampas. It is found as far south as the Rio Negro, in latitude 41°, but not beyond. It cannot, like the Dolichotis pata^ chonica^ subsist on the gravelly and desert plains of Patagonia, but prefers a clayey or sandy soil, which produces a different and more abundant vegetation. Near Mendoza, at the foot of Cordillera, it occurs in close neighborhood with the allied alpine species. It is a very curious circumstance in its geogi'.aphical distribution, that it has never been seen, fortunately for the inhabitants, in Banda Oriental, eastward of the river Uraguay; yet in that province there are plains which appear admirably adapted to its habits. That river has formed an insuperable obstacle to its migration, although the broader barrier of the Parana has been passed, and the Viscacha is common in Entre Rios (the province between the two rivers), directly on the opposite shore of the Uraguay. Near Buenos Ayres these are .animals exceedingly common. Their most favorite resort appears to be those parts of the plain which during one-half of the year are covered with great thistles, to the exclusion of other plants. The guachos affirm that it lives on roots, which, from the great strength of its gnawing teeth, and the kind of localities frequented by it, seems prob.able. As in the case of the rabbit, a few holes are com- monly placed together. In the evening the Viscachas come out in numbers, and there quietly sit on their haunches. They are at such times very tame, and a man on horse- back passing by seems only to present an object for then- grave contemplation. They do not wander far from their burrows. Tiiey run very awkwardly, and when hurrying out of danger, from their elevated tails and short front legs, much resemble great rats. Their flesh when cooked is white and good, but it is seldom used." It requires no great stretch of the imagination to fancy the species of the next genus, Ziagidinm, to be a cross between a squirrel and a rabbit, combining as they do the long ears of the latter with the long, bushy tail of the former. They are alpine cliinchillas, with four toes on the fore feet (the true chinchillas having five), inhabiting the Andes of Chili, Bolivia, and Peru. There are at least two species, — Cuvier's Chinchilla (X. cuvieri), and the Pale-footed {I,, palhpes). The foi'mer is about eighteen inches long, the bushy tail m.aking nearly as much more ; the hare-like ears are scarcely shorter than the he.ad ; the very soft fur is yellowish-gray above, pencilled with black, and showing a narrow black line along the back ; the under parts are pale-yellowish ; the taU is black underneath. In habits these animal agree substantially with the chinchillas. If the foregoing be called rabbit-squirrels, the Chinchilla itself ( C. lanigera) may be termed a pika-squirrel. Such an animal as w-e have described under Lagomys, fitted with lengthened ears and hind legs, and a long, bushy tail, would resemble a chinchilla. There also appears to be some general similitude in habits between these very different, yet equally alpine creatures, though the chinchilla, as might be ex- pected from its more graceful shape, displays much greater agility than the pika ni 8ki]>ping about the rocky fastness it inhabits. The caprices of fashion have brought the beautifully thick, soft, and elegantly marbled dusky-gray fleece in great repute, and the little creatures have consequentlj- been long subjected to cruel jiersecution. Chin- chillas are only nine or ten inches long, and it takes many such small pelts to make a single garment for their opjiressors. Notwithstanding this, they are so prolific as to hold their own in great abundance. The tail, in the small species under consideration, is about three-fourths as long as the body. A larger species, L. hrevicauda, is described RODENTIA. 87 as measuring about fourteen inches in length of head and body, with the tail only about live and a half. The general tone of the coloration is silver-gray. Both kinds are fotind in Peru, the smaller one ranging also in Bolivia and Chili. Fig. 37. — Chinchilla lanigera, common chinchilla, one-third natural size. Hitherto we have encountered no spiny rodents ; but in these " fretful " animals, the Porcupines (French J'oir-epi?!, or "Prickly-Porker") of the family Hystricid^e, more or less of the pelage is converted into stout spines mixed with long hairs. These are usually quite short ; but in some species they attain a length of eight, twelve, or even sixteen inches, and are cylindric, tapering, and parti-colored ; being those objects so well known as fancy pen-holders. Such a singular armature furnishes the required pro- tection to animals otherwise almost defenceless ; for, when erected and bristling in every direction, such a chevaux-de-frise is absolutely impenetrable. The spines are loosely inserted in the skin — so loosely that they readily become detached ; they may even be shaken loose by energetic muscular action, and those which are barbed stick readily in any object they penetrate. Here is the grain of truth in the traditional chaff, that the porcupine shoots its quills as it stands on the defensive, or lets fly Parthian arrows as it reti'eats from its pursuers. The writer has many times witnessed the actions of one of the porcupines {Erethizon epixanthtis). In this creature the spines are very short, only aliout an inch long, but sharp and jagged at the point. The animal is slow, clumsy, sullen, and when captured makes no show of resistance beyond gathering itself in a heap, with the head and limbs drawn in as far as possible, and the back high-arched like that of an angry cat. The spiny tract is chiefly on the lower back and upper sur- face of the broad, lumpish tail. The latter is the chief weapon of defence ; while the creature seems passive, it is all the while keenly watching the enemy, waiting for a 88 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. chance to let fly. Should one come incautiously within striking distance, he will prob- ably feel hurt before he has time to discover that numerous quills are sticking in his clothes and person. There has been a vicious flirt of the tail, — a peculiar jerky slap, as if the thorny member worked on a spring hinge, — reminding one of the jumping of a spring-beetle {E later). Should the animal be worried with a stick from a safer dis- tance, repeated thrashings of the tail, each quick as a flash, betray its irritation ; and after the melee, many of the quHls lie scattered on the ground, having been flirted out in the convulsive action. The common species of European porcupine, Mystrix cris- tata, and others of that group, have a defensive apparatus additional to the foot-long quills above-mentioned. The end of the tail is furnished witli a set of curious short, stout spines, open at the end, but inserted in the skin by a slender stalk. These quills rattle when the tail is shaken, doubtless sounding like a warning or a challenge to an enemy, and reminding one of the equally noisy appendage of the rattlesnake's tail. There are two very distinct groups of porcupines, one inhabiting the Old World, the other the New. The former are ground porcupines, terrestrial and fossorial (sub-family Hystricinse). The latter are more or less arboreal (sub-family Sphingurinse), and in some of these the elongated tail becomes prehensile, to be hooked about the branches of trees like that of a monkey or opossum. There are other characters, such as the number of toes, together with some dental and osteological peculiarities. But the American tree porcupines are not exclusively arboreal. The genus Erethizon seems to connect the two groups, so far as habits are concerned ; for E. epixanthus is found oftener on the ground than in trees, and has been observed on the prairie many miles away from the nearest timber. In none of the Sphingurinse do the quills attain any- thing like the dimensions seen in Hystrix proper. They are usually an inch or less in length, and when not bristled w, are entirely concealed in the long, coarse hair. Some genera of the next family (Octodontidi») are quite as thorny as most of the porcupines. The Hystricinae inhabit the Palsearctic, Indian, and Ethiopian regions. The typical genus, Hystrix, with several species, has the very long cylindric quills, and the rattle- box above described, together with many shorter spines. S. cristata, the Common Porcupine, some two and a half feet long, with a very short tail, inhabits Southern Europe and Northern Africa. The other genus is Atherura, comjirising the Brush- tailed Porcupines of the Malay region (^-1. fasciculata), and also of Africa {A. africana) ; these are much smaller, with relatively longer taU, and quite short, chan- nelled spines. The semi-arboreal North American Porcupines constitute the genus Erethizon, with an Eastern {E. dorsatus) and a Western species {E. epixanthus). They are of large size, averaging about two and a half feet long, of ungainly form and ugly visage, ex- tremely stout and clumsy body, short, strong limbs, terminating in large claws, of which there are five (not four, as usual in Sphingurinoe) on the hind feet. The tail is not pre- hensile, but short, flattened, tapering to the obtuse end from a base so stout that no distinction of body and tail is perceptible. The upper lip is slightly notched, but there is no cleft, and the whole muftle is hairy. The pelage below is short and soft ; above, the animal is extremely hirsute, the long, coarse hair being mixed with small, sharp quills on the haunches and tail. Both species are found from the limit of trees at the north into much of the United States. The South American tree porcupines are smaller and more perfectly arboreal species of the two genera Choetomys and Sphingurus, in which the tail is longer and RODENT I A. 89 more or loss prehensile, and there are only four toes on the hind feet. These range over Central and South America, from Southern Blexico to Paraguay, east of the Andes. In Chmtomys subspiiiostis, the type of the genus, we see the transition from hairs to quills, the body being clad with stout, wavy bristles. The numerous species of Sphingiirus have the body clothed with short spines, or mixed spines and bristles ; S. mexicanus is the northernmost; others of more extensive distribution are the Co3ndou (S. prehensilis) and the Couiy (S. viUoswt). Fig. 38. — Ereihizon dorsatus, North Amcriuun purcupiuc, uiiu-^ixLU uatural size. The remaining members of the Hystricine alliance are numerous and diversified, but present some common characters by which they may be grouped in one family, OcTODOXTiD^. None are very well known, except to naturalists and to the natives of the countries they respectively inhabit ; so that they have received no name familiar to English ears, with the exception, perhaps, of the Coypu, whose skin is an article of commerce, under the style of " Nutria fur." The Octodons furnish, with the ground porcupines, the exceptions to the rule that the Hystricomorphs are peculiar to America, and, with the further exception of Erethizon, to Central and South America. Four genera are African ; two are West Indian. The technical characters of the family are derived chiefly from the skull and teeth ; but other features are so diverse that it will be best simply to notice the leading forms under the heads of the three sub-families into which they are divisible. The first of tliese is the EchinomyinsB, or Hedge-hog Rats, as they may be collect- ively termed, "from the circumstance that the pelage is usually harsh, or bristly, or even mixed with spines. In external form and aspect, however, as well as in habits, the numerous genera differ much. Thus, the remarkable African respresenta- tive of the group, Aidacodus swinderianus, is a large burrowing animal, called by the natives " Ground-pig." It is nearly two feet long, with a stout body, and short ears, limbs, and tail. The pelage consists of harsh, bristly hair, flattened and grooved ; the 90 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. general color is brownish. The incisor teeth are triply grooved. From this lumpish African animal we pass directly (technical characters being considered) to the West Indian representatives of the Echinomyinse, of the genera Capromys and Plagiodon. The species of the former inhabit Cuba ; of the latter, St. Domingo ; the differences between these genera are chiefly anatomical, the external appearance being very similar. Both might be described as immense tree-rats, the general proportions reminding iis of rats, though the tail is relatively much shorter. It is somewhat naked and scaly, and in one species, in which it attains its greatest length, acquires also some prehensile power, aiding the animal in its arboreal excursions. The Hutia- conga of the Cubans ( Capromys pilorides) is the short-tailed species, about twenty inches in length, the tall being half as much again ; the color is blackish and yellow- ish. The Hutia-carabali {C. prehensilis) is the other species, much smaller, and longer- tailed. The St. Domingo Plagiodon cedium resembles the former in proportions, but is nearer the latter in dimensions. All the remaining Echinomyinae are strictly South American. The most remark- able of them all, and the best known one, is the Coypu {Myopotamus coypus), in which the resemblance to the beaver is extraordinary. In fact, it represents the beaver among Hystricomorphs, affording one of the many cases in which an animal of one of the three great rodent series mimics and actually represents one of another series. The coypu is one of the larger rodents, about equalling a beaver in size, with a stout form, powerful organization, strong dentition, webbed hind feet, and thoroughly aquatic habits. The tail is partly naked and scaly ; but differs from the flat paddle of the beaver, in being cylindric and tapering, like that of an otter. The coj'pu, in fact, might be likened to a beaver with an otter's tail attached ; and this similarity seems to be noticed in the term " nutria," applied in commerce to the pielage, iiutria being etymologically the same word as lutra, an otter. The coypu lives in burrows along in the banks of rivers, and even, in some places, on the coast ; it swims freely, sometimes in the open sea, and may be observed at times carrying its young on its back, before they have learned to swim. The eminent monographer of the Rodentia, Mr. Waterhouse, considers that this habit explains the unusual position of the teats of the female coypu, which are situated on the sides of the body, above the middle line, behind the shoulder and before the thigh. But a more or less lateral and elevated situation of the nipples is a common character in the present family. It is scarcely necessary to add, that the beautiful brown fur of this aquatic animal, not unlike beaver or otter, has the very reverse of the quality implied in the name Echinomyinie, being soft and dense, and forming an important article of commerce. South America also yields a considerable number — -over a dozen species- — of small Echinomyinaj, referable to several genera. They are all of rat-like aspect, with much the general figure and bearing of rats, the ears and limbs, and especially the tail, being well developed. This member may equal or even exceed the head and body in length ; it is seldom if ever much shorter, and may be either naked and scaly, or closely haired throughout, or even tufted at the end. In the genera Uchinomys and Loncheres, comprehending some dozen species, the fur is usually mixed with more or fewer spines; the other genera are soft-haired. These spines are generally flattened, somewhat lancet-shaped, contracting suddenly at the base to a slender stalk to be inserted in the skin, gradually running to a sharp point at the end ; they may, furthennore, be chan- nelled or ridged. They do not project beyond the general surface of the fur. Echi- nomys cayennensis is the best-known species of that genus ; it is not very dissimilar to RODENTIA. 91 species of the Murine genus Neotoma in general aspect. Some of the Loncheres are very prettily marked, as the L. cristata, with its brown body and snowy crest and end of the tail ; or the parti-colored i. picta. Related forms, all of which lack spines, are Cercomys cimicularius of Brazil, with a long, scaly tail, and curiously similar to the common house-rat ; Dactylomys typus, with a scaly tail, longer than the head and body ; and species of 3fesornt/s, with a short, thickly-haired tail. The genus Cartero- don, based upon a sj^ecies ((7. sulcidens) from the bone-caves of Brazil, but since found to have living representatives, completes the list of Echinomyinte. If the animals so summarily noted in the preceding paragraph be comparable in any way to rats (Murinae), — and there is certainly foundation for the superficial com- parison,— then the species which compose the next sub-family, Octodontinas, may with the same propriety be likened to the voles or field-mice (Arvicolince). At any rate, the two groups fill, in Octodontidse, the place occupied in Muridaa by the Murinaj and ArvicolinEe, respectively. With the exception of the remarkable outlying African genus Petromys, with a single species {P. tyjnciis), which resembles those of the foregoing paragraph, all these South American Octodontinai are chubby animals, with short tails and limbs, and generally short ears ; of moderate stature, and terres- trial and fossorial habits. The dentition is powerful, with large, broad incisors, and generally rootless, perennial molars ; the skull is heavy and angular. In many respects, therefore, they represent the Arvicolinse in their own series. The genera (besides Petromys) are Ctenomys, Sjyalacojnis, Schizodon, Octodon, and Hahrocoma. In the two former of these, the mimicry of Arvicolinfe is particularly well expressed. The Tuko-tuko ( Ctenomys brasiliensis) represents a genus of which several species are described, of grayish or brownish animals, usually eight or ten inches long, with a tail of two or three inches, very stout form, small eyes, and rudimentary ears. The generic name is derived from a comb-like row of bristles with which the hind feet are provided. These animals are thoroughly fossorial, living in long galleries under ground, feeding chiefly upon bulbs and other roots, and being mostly nocturnal. In their economy they thus seem to repeat the habits of the Geomyidce. ; wliile in size, shape, and general appearance they are strikingly similiar. Together with the single species of Spalacopus, S. poeppigi of Chili, an equally subterranean and nocturnal ani- mal, they appear to fill, in South America, the physiological rdfe performed by the species of Geomys and Thomomys in North America. They extend from Brazil to the very extremity of Patagonia, one of the species being named C magellanims from its habitat. The genera Octodon (which, though giving name to the present sub- family, and to the whole family we are considering, is not jiarticularly conspicuous) and Schizodon are closely related, differing chiefly from each other in the tail, which is as long as the body, and bushy at the end in the former, shorter and close-haired throughout in the latter genus. The ears and limbs, like the tail, are better developed than they are in Ctenomys and Spalacopus ; the body is less clumsy, and the acti\ities of the animal are more notably varied. Schizodon fuscus, of the Southerly Andes, is the only species of that genus ; there are several of Octodon, inhabiting Chili, Bolivia, and Peru, of which the Degu, 0. cumingi, is the best known. One has been named 0. gliroides ; whether a good species or not, the name may serve to signalize a certain resemblance which the rather pretty species of this genus bear to dormice. AH of the foregoing genera have the fore feet five-toed ; the remaining genus, ITabrocoma, is distinguished by having but four toes in front, as well as by the great size of the rounded ears ; as the name indicates, the fur is extremely soft and dense, like the 92 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. fleece of a chinchilla. H. bennetti, the typical species, is of a subdued grayish color, rather larger than a house-rat, with the tail about half as long as the head and body, and close-haired throughout. H. citvieri is a similar but much smaller species ; both inhabit Chili. There are, of course, the proper technical characters distinguishing these several genera; but in the necessity of passing them in rapid review, a better idea of the group may, perhaps, be given by the expressions used, than by any mere formulation of dental and cranial details. The third sub-family of Octodontidte remains to be noted in a word. This is the Ctenodactylinaj, so-named from the fringe of bristles on the inner toes of the hind feet (somewhat as we have seen in the genus Ctenomys). These animals have some rela- tionships with the jerboas, though totally different in appearance. They inhabit Africa, where they are rejjresented by only two genera, each of a single species — Ctenodactylus massoni of North Africa, and Pectinator spekii of the Somali country, — neither of which has any English name ; the former is called Gundi by the natives. It is in this grouj) that the Hystricine rule of four back teeth, above and below, finds its sole exception, Ctenodactylus having no premolars in either jaw, and the same teeth of Pectinator being minute. The gundi is about the size of a large Arvicola, with very small ears, and a mere stump of a tail ; the hind limbs are lengthened over the fore. In Pectinator the ears are better developed, and the tail is of a moderate length. The Hysti'icine series has left traces of its former existence nearly or quite through the tertiary period — Oetodons, porcupines, chinchillas, agoutis, and cavies being all represented, some of them abundantly. The later fossils are identical with existing genera in many cases ; and while other and distinct genera are also known, they are too similar to existing forms to throw much light upon the evolutionary history of the series. One of the capybaras, from the bone-caves of Brazil, was a great creature, some iive feet long. Another Jlydrochcerus (JT. cesopi), from South Carolina, as well as some West Indian remains {Loxontylus and Amblyrhiza) referred to Chinchillidoe, show the former distribution to have been more extensive than it is now. Viewing the African outliers now living, and the Old World Hystricince, it would not be sur- jM-ising if certain European fossils which have been referred to Octodontidse were really such ; but their position is very questionable. (See also beyond, under head of CastoroididsB.) The MYOMORPHA is the largest series of the Rodents, owing to the great pre- ponderance of the Muridse, its central and typical family, the genera and species of which are, at the present time, far more numerous than those of any other family of the order; while the profusion of individuals of some of the species, and their exten- sive geograjjhical distribution, combine to make them among the best knowni of mam- mals. The house-rat, or the common mouse, tyjDify the family Min-idre, and to some extent the entire Murine series ; but there are many families of Myomorphs besides Muridse proper, some of them of very different aspects and economy ; so that one would gain but an imperfect idea of the whole Murine series who should judge them by this particular standard. The jerboas, for example, or the mole-rats, or the pouched-gophers, or the pocket-mice, or the dormice, have but slight resemblance to ordinary rats and mice, and in some respects recall members of other rodent series. But one set of structural characters runs throuarh all these disoruises of outward form RODE NT I A. 93 and habits. The key to it is found in the combination of leg-bones (tibia and fibula) anchylosed below, which separates any Murine from any Sciurine or Hystricine ; together with a certain shape of the lower jaw which distinguishes any Murine (excepting the Bathyerginre) from any Hystricine. This shape of the jaw results from the springing of the angular process from the lower edge of that part of the bone in which the incisor is inserted. The molars are rooted in most genera, rootless in some ; no premolars is the rule, but with many exceptions ; in one genus {ILjdromtjs) there are but two molars on each side, above and below, the whole number of teeth (twelve) being thus fewer than in almost any other mammal. Post-frontal processes, so j^rom- inent a feature in Sciuromorphs, are here wanting. The clavicles are perfect (except in Lophiomys) ; jjrobably in all cases the forepaws are serviceable as hands, and some of the species are as active as squirrels in climbing. The upper lip is usually cleft, with a small, naked and mobile muffle. The average size is small, under that of the house- rat ; the musk-rat and the juniping-hares are the largest, while some of the Myomorphs are among the most diminutive of quadrupeds. The range of activities is wide and varied ; species being arboreal, terrestrial, aquatic, almost subterranean ; all modes of progression are employed, and the jerboas at least seem to skim the ground almost like winged creatures ; but none of this series are provided with flying organs like some of the Sciui'idae and various other quadrupeds. No fewer than nine families come under the Murine Alliance. We will begin with that one which exhibits some affinity with the Hystricine series, through th African representatives of that group last considered. The jerboas, belonging to the family Dipodid^, are kangaroo-like, in so far as the development of the hind limbs, and the extraordinary power of leaping which results, are concerned. The fore part of the body, and the fore limbs, are correspondingly reduced, and the tail is very long. The elongation of the hind limbs takes place chiefly in the metatarsus or instep, between the toes and the heel, this part of the limb making a slender shank. Other characters vary in the several very distinct genera which com- pose the family. The Jumping Hare of South Africa {Pedetes caffer) is nearly as large as the com- mon Hare {Zepus timidus), and so different from the typical jerboas as to form a separate sub-family, Pedetinse. The grindei-s are rootless, and there is one premolar above and below, making four back-teeth in all. The hind feet are four-toed, with stout, hoof-like claws ; the tail is long, about equalling the body, and bushy throughout ; and the ears are tall, like a rabbit's ; the color too is somewhat similar. Hence the name of "jumping hare " bestowed by the colonists upon these strange creatures, which go trooping over the ground like so many kangaroos, clearing twenty or thirty feet at one prodigious bound. In the true Jerboas (sub-family Dipodinre), the same saltatorial modifications are carried to the uttermost, with such result that the leaping of a jerboa Miih extraor- dinary velocity, and only an instant's elastic contact with the ground, seems more like flying than running ; and even when going slowly there is something very curious in the way it walks on its hind legs. The jerboa, in fact, is more truly biped than any monkey, and even more so than a kangaroo, which latter is supported upon a tripod, the tail furnishing a third leg. The shank is reduced to a single cannon-bone by union of the metatarsals, and the hind feet have but three functionally-developed digits. The toes are stout, hairy, and padded underneath. One of the rarest osteological 94 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. modifications of mammals — the fusion of several vertebrte of the neck — is found in Dipus, as it is also in some of the sloths and whales. The molars are rooted ; pre- molars are lacking below, and minute or rudimentary above. The incisors are vertically- grooved. The skull is very broad behind, with enormously developed auditory jiarts (as in the similarly configured, but very different, kangaroo-mice of North America). The ears are long ; the tail is longer than the head and body, slenderly cylindric, and tufted at the end. The species of Dipics are very numerous in warmer parts of the Old World, but not in South Africa, where the Pedetes replaces them ; D. cegypUus is one of the best known. The usual size is six or seven inches, the tail more ; the fur is of some sandy color above, white below. Belonging to Dipodinte pro]ier, but exhibiting the transition thence to Pedetinse, are the genera Ahtctaga and l^latycercomys. In these there is a small premolar above, but none below, making the teeth of unequal numbers in the two jaws, contrary to the rule in rodents. The incisors are not grooved, the occipital and auditory regions of the skull less inflated. These genera share the cannon-bone and anchylosed cervical vertebrae of Dipus ; but there are five digits on the hind feet, of ■\\-hich, however, the inner and outer do not reach the ground. In Alactaga, which includes several species of Asia, Arabia, and Northern Africa, the tail is extremely long, and tufted at the end like a jerboa's; the animals jump almost as well as jerboas, but also proceed leisurely on all fours. In Platycercomys the hind legs are somewhat reduced, doubtless with corresponding decrease of saltatorial power ; and the tail is flattened and uniformly covered with short hairs, not tufted. All the members of this curious family live on the plains and deserts, and are more or less gregarious, trooping about together, and finding their retreats in underground burrows, the galleries of which are often of great extent and intricacy, and occupied by several individuals. The family Zapodid^ is framed to accommodate a single genus and species, Zapus hudsonius, the well-known Jumping Mouse of North America. Agreeing in many respects with the true Muridse, it is modified for saltatorial progression, somewhat after the manner of the Dijjodidje. The cervical vertebrae are not anchylosed, nor are the metatarsal bones confluent. The molars are rooted ; there is a small premolar RODENTIA. 95 above, but none below. The skull is mouse-like, in that the auditory parts are not specially developed. All four feet are five-toed, but the thumb is rudimentary, with a flat, blunt nail. The animal is about the size of the house-mouse, but enlarged behind, with long legs for leaping ; the tail is very long and slender, exceeding the head and body in length, and scant-haired, so that the scales show, like those of a mouse's tail. The ears are well developed. There are internal cheek-pouches. The pelage is coarse and hispid, of a light, sandy-bi'own above, darkened along the back with a mixture of blackish hairs ; the imder parts are white. The length of head and body is about three inches, that of the tail five, but very variable. This interesting little animal Fig. 40. — Zapus AMf?so7(i((s, jumping mouse, natural size. inhabits the greater part of North America from Atlantic to Pacific, as far north at least as latitude 6'i°, but chiefly in wooded regions. When alarmed it makes off in a series of astonishing flying lea])S, clearing eight or ten feet at a bound, but when mov- ing leisurely, proceeds on all-fours, like an ordinary mouse. In winter it hibernates, like a dormouse. Professor Tenney has given us the particulars of a case in which he found one in January, in a grassy nest about two feet under ground, ajiparently dead, coiled in a close ball with the tail -s^-rapped tightly around it. Taking it in charge, he produced an alternation of acti^■ity and torpidity, by subjecting the little creature to varying temperatures. The female brings forth two to four young in her under- ground retreat. Here we must pause for a moment to consider certain fossil genera, the position 96 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. of which is, perhaps, not fixed, but which the highest authority upon the rodents, Mr. Alston, has associated together in a family, Theeidomyid^, and located here. Though they were at first Variously classed and widely separated, the form of the jaw shows them to have been perfectly myomorphic, and they were, in Mr. Alston's judg- ment, related to the Dipodidte. They are Theridomys, Archceomys, and Issidioromys, from the eocene and miocene of Europe. We, however, adopt the family only pro- visionally. Fig. 41. — Cheek pouches of I)i])otomtjs, Arvicola with several sub- divisions, and JEvotomijs, embracing the multitude of animals known as water-rats, field-mice or voles, and lemmings. The Ondatra, Musquash, or Muskrat {Fiber zibethicus) is too well known an inhabitant of North America at large to require detailed description. Its chief pecu- liarity is the long tail, as scaly as that of a beaver, but narrow and compressed verti- cally, almost like a knife-blade. It is thoroughly arvicoline in other respects ; and, though especially fitted for an aquatic life, is scarcely more addicted to such habits than some species of Arvicola, notably the water-rat of Europe {A. amphibius). It is much the largest of the family, about a foot in length, the tail six or eight inches ; the pelage dark glossy-brown above, more grayish below, with copious soft under-fur, impervious to water. The young are blackish. As in many other aquatic animals, the hind feet are comparatively large and somewhat " clubbed," that is to say, set on obliquely at the ankle-joint, so that they may easily assume positions like those given by a rower to his oars in " feathering." The soles and palms are perfectly naked ; the toes of the hind feet are partially webbed. The tail acts as a rudder, being very flexible sideways. The ears are buried in the fur, and the muffle is completely furry, excepting the small nose-pads. The mammaj are six in number. The muskrat is so timid and watchful, and its habits are so secretive, that it is not seen so often as one might expect, even in places where its tracks in the muddy banks, and the habitations it constructs, sufficiently attest its presence in large numbers. Sometimes its retreats are simply burrows in the bank, with one or more apertures leading out under the water ; at others, it constructs large, domed houses of matted vegetation, which rise above the level of the water, but, like the burrows, have their entrance below. The general plan is then similar to that of a beaver-house ; and indeed there is much like- ness in the economy of these two creatures. Muskrat skins have a commercial value, and immense numbers are taken, chiefly by trapping. Lemmings are simply Arctic Arvicolas, modified to endure the rigors of the dis- mal hyperborean regions, where they swarm in almost incredible numbers, and some- times perform the most extraordinary and erratic migi-ations in vast armies, the sudden apparition of which gave rise to the popular myth that they fell from the clouds. Grave scientific treatises have been devoted to this subject. There are two very dis- tinct genera of lemmings. The Collared or Snowy Lemming ( Cuniculus torquatus) RODENT I A. 105 turns pure white in winter, while the others, of the genus Myodes, do not. In sum- mer this curious creature is j)rettily d:i}ii)led with chestnut, black, gray, and buff, usually with a dark dorsal line, a light collar, and white tail and feet. In form it is the chubbiest of all, with a dense and copious pelage, furry hands and feet, the hairs sometimes reaching half an inch beyond the claws, a mere pencil of hairs for a tail, and no external ears. Here the molars acquire the maximum known number of prisms, there being on one of the teeth no fewer than eleven sharp, salient, alternating angles, six along the inner border, and five outer ones. The fore claws are extremely large, and have the peculiarity of being at some seasons duplicated, as it were, by an Fig. 51. — Ml/odes lanmus, one-half natural size. enormous growth of horny substance along their under surfaces, which is periodically shed and renewed; its use is not knov^ai. This lemming inhabits the arctic regions of both hemispheres, especially North America and Greenland. The species of Mi/odes, two or three in number, have no such peculiarity of the claws, and do not change color; they are altogether more like ordinary Arvicolas, though retaining to some extent the stout form, with short members, of Cunicuhis. They are of livelier and more variegated coloration than is usual in this group, and have decided dental char- acters of generic value. M. obensis, of Arctic Asia and North America, is some- times of a bright orange-chestnut above and rusty orange below; the short-haired, small-clawed, and dark-colored feet contrasting with the condition of these parts in the collared lemming. The size is about the same, — four to six inches. The North European species is the original "Lemming," M. lemnvus. This is the animal so 106 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. famous for its migrations. Our historical accounts of the more conspicuous invasions of the Norway hosts date hack for a century and a half at least. The cause is not well determined, but the movements are probably connected in some way with irregu- lar oscillations in their myriads, and overcrowding of the lemming population; for when the reproduction is from any cause excessive the surplus must go elsewhere. A tendency to such " tidal waves " of increase, and corresponding movements of a species en masse., is seen in various Arvicolinte, though it probably never reaches such a climax as that attained when the lemming hordes leave their mountain fastnesses for the lowlands. Nothing can stoj) them ; they proceed straight on in their course, urged by some resistless impulse, swimming broad rivers and lakes, and invading towns which may lie in their way, until they come down to the sea. Blindly insensi- ble to danger, running every risk, incessantly preyed upon by foes of every kind to which they are exjjosed, and peculiarly subject to disease at such times, countless thou- sands necessarily perish ; the movement thus proving a necessary check upon their excessive multiplication, and tending to readjust a disturbed balance of animal life. A remarkable little animal, Synaptomys cooperi, has only lately been discovered to inhabit various portions of North America, from the valley of the Ohio to Alaska. In outward form and in habits, so far as these are known, it resembles an ordinary field- mouse; but on examination the dentition is found to be that of a Myodes, with the peculiarity of grooved incisors, unique in the sub-family Arvicolina3. The species of Arvicola itself are numerous and fall in several sections of the genus, chiefly according to the details of construction of the prismatic molars. These constitute the voles of Europe, the field-mice or meadow-mice of North America. They abound nearly throughout these countries, and ai-e everywhere pests to the farmer. Some, like v4. amphibius, the common Water-Vole or W.iter-Rat of Europe, are decidedly aquatic ; and, in general, the Arvicolas prefer low, moist meadow-land in the vicinity of streams, which affords conditions not unlike those of the peat bogs and sphagnum morasses, in which the more northerly kinds swarm. Some, however, are found in mountainous localities, and some on the high and dry prairies. They are small ani- mals, rarely over fi\e inches in length, readily distinguished from mice proper by their short limbs and tail, thick form, blunt muzzle, low ears mostly buried in the fur, and dark, unvaried colors. They bring forth in underground burrows, and are very prolific. Their movements, though quick enough, have not the ease and freedom which marks those of ordinary mice. We can barely mention some of the leading species. In Europe, besides A . amphibius, already mentioned, there are the Field- Vole {A. ayrestis), with its southern relative (A. arvalis), and an Alpine species {A. niva- lis), which lives up to the limit of perpetual snow in the Alps and Pj^renees. The Root-Vole (A. ceconomus) is a large and abundant Asiatic species. The commonest North American one is the Meadow-Mouse {A. riparius), which, in some of its endless varieties, inhabits the greater part of the continent. Another is the very large chest- nut-cheeked species (A. xanthoynathus), confined to regions north of the United States. A very common form in the Mississijjpi valley and westward is a medium sized, rough-haired, grayish species called A. austerus. A smoother and brighter col- ored one is the Pine-Mouse (A. pinetorum). Each of the three last-named repi-esents a different sub-genus; and the latter is not.able as the most southern expression of the genus, having a Mexican representative, A. quasiater. The Red-backed Mouse of Amei-ica, occurring from the Northern States to the Arctic Ocean, and the Bank-Vole of Europe, are varieties of one circumpolar species liODENTIA. 107 ■whicli constitutes the genus Evotomys. This is distinguished from all other Arvicolas by having semi-rooted molars, and some cranial jieculiarities, together with larger ears than usual, these distinctly over-topping the fur. The coloration is livelier than ordinary, the upper parts being quite reddish. The boreal stock-form is E. rutilus, which southward passes into the variety gapperi in North America, and variety gla- reola in Eui'ope. The latter is said to be one of the most prolific of quadrupeds, l^roducing four to eight young three or four times a year. The species of this genus are more like ordinary mice than are any other Arvicolas, thus furnishing a link be- tween the present and the next sub-familj% as well as between the rootless and rooted- molar sections of the whole family, the latter of which we will now consider. Coming now to the central and by far the largest sub-family, the Murine proper, we find it as difiicult to frame a definition of the group, with relation to the other sub- families, as it is to concisely distinguish the Muridae from the other famiUes of the great myomorphic alliance. But the house-rat and house-mouse typify and exemplify the whole ; all the variations from these well-known standards, though multifarious, being of scarcely more than generic value. In a group of such great extent, it is of advantage to establish divisions if possible, and one line at least may be drawn, almost unexceptionally, separating all the Murinse of the Old World from all those of the New. In the former series, the dentition is stronger than it is in the latter; the molars being thicker across, and their tmworn crowns presenting three series of tuber- cles ; in the latter, there are but two such series, and the molars are by so much nar- rower and weaker. AVhen the tubercles wear down, the enamel ridges and dentine islands correspondingly differ in the two series, and the American Murinse have been called Sigmodontes from the tracery which results in some cases. The only known exception to this rule is furnished by the JMadagascar genus, JVesoniys, the teeth of which are described as like those of the American Ilespieromys. None of the Old World Murinfe appear to develop cheek-pouches, which are of common occurrence in Hespiero- mys, etc. We accordingly draw a line which separates the two sets of genera, both by physical characters and by geographical distribution. The organization of the Old World forms would appear to be superior to that of the New ; for whenever the two come in contact the latter yield and retire before their imported rivals. The genus 3rus itself, with its long array of a hundred species, absorbs the majority of the series of Old World Mares, with tri-tuberculate molars, including at least one-third of the entire family Muridse. If the reader will strike a balance of size between the house-rat and house-mouse, and allow some little margin for variation in form, the whole genus will be before him as ^\•c^ as the most elaborate technical detail could present it. The colors of the old gray rat, and the little brown mouse — the latter having passed into a descriptive term of "mouse-color" — are, however, far from expressing the range of color in Mus, — the tints being often bright and lively, and sometimes much variegated ; the snowy breast and paws of a Hesperomys, for exam- ple, being also repeated in some cases. In a few species, the coat is very hispid, or even prickly. The long, slim, rounded tail, with its whorls of scales, — that which has given a name to a familiar instrument, the " rat-tail file," — is a conspicuous and very constant character. In the clambering of the species over uneven objects, it is of great assist- ance to have this " dragging anchor ; " while in some species the same useful member becomes prehensile to a degree, thus capable of being neatly twisted about the slender swaying stems of plants. Some species of this genus are parasitic upon man, and have followed his tracks all 108 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. over the world. The nativity of the brown House-rat, also, but very uni^roperly, called the Norway rat {Mus decummms), is unknown, lint jirobably Asiatic, as the species has been known from Eastern countries for a long period. The date of its appearance in Eu- vQ-pe has been fixed by one author at 1727; it had overrun that coun- try by the middle of the same century, and it has at length been trans- ported in ships all over the world. Its fecund- ity, its ferocity, and in- domitable persistency, its ubiquity, voracity, and low cunning, to- gether with a tough and elastic physique, which readily adapts itself to circum- stances, assure its foothold everywhere. In America it drives away not only the Fig. 52. — Mus decumanus, brown house-rat, one-lialf natural size. 1 '^ Fig. 53. — Mus rattus, black rat, two-tliirds natural size. native Sigmodontes, but also those weaker species of its o^vn genus, as the Black (If. rattus) and White-bellied Rat (31. alexandrinus), with which it comes into com- petition. Landing upon small islands from shipwrecks, and pressed for food, it has been Mils muscuhis, mouse. Mus decumanus, brown rat. RODENTIA. 109 Fig. 54. — Mus musculus, common mouse, natural size. known to exterminate other animals in a few years. It is probably the most carnivor- ous, or rather omnivorous, of its tribe, and to some extent acts as man's scavenger in the sewers and abattoirs of cities ; but there seems to be no other useful trait to offset its pestiferous qualities. The ferocity of a rat in a corner is proverbial; a swarm of the animals, frenzied with hunger, have been known to attack and even kill a man ; while there are only too many sad authentic stories of neglected babies being destroyed and devoured by these insatiable creatures. The black and the white-bellied rats, above mentioned, appear to be the only addi- tional Old World species which have secured foothold in the New, excepting, of course, the House-Mouse {M. muscit- lus). There is only one capac- ity of this little creature to which I need allude, and that is its singing, — a musical fac- ulty which all have heard of, but probably few have heard, leaving many to doubt. A mouse which I once had pre- sented to me was a great singer. Placing the cage in my bed- room, I turned off the gas and retired, to give it every encour- agement to proceed with the expected programme in quiet and darkness, but with grave doubts that it would favor me with a song. In a few moments, however, the little musician piped up, and sang very prettily, — it was not squeaking, but singing, musically and rhythmically, in a high key, with a thin and wiry, but not displeasing quality, — something like a weak-voiced canary-bird. Listening for some time till I grew sleepy, I placed this eccentric prima donna in an adjoining room, at least twenty feet from my bed, the door open between ; but even at that distance the singing was loud enough to disturb me, and I had to carry the little creature down stairs before I could get to sleep. Among the best-known European .species of the genus are the pretty Wood-Mouse {M. sylvaticus), which resembles the American Hesperomys, and the tiny little Harvest- Mouse {31. minutus), three inches long. Necessarily passing by numberless others we should like to notice, we can only mention the remaining Old World genera. Pelomys is distinguished by its grooved incisors and short tail; P.fallax inhabits Mozambique ; Africa furnishes a genus {AcantJiomys) in which the fur is mixed with spines. Aus- tralia has a peculiar form, Echiiiothrix, with a pelage of similar character. This exceptional continent is also supplied with rats peculiar to itself of the remarkable genus Hapalotis, of which there are a dozen different species. These have the hind limbs lengthened, somewhat jerboa-like ; the eai's largo and tapering, the tail long and hairy, tufted at the end. H. albipes is the best-known species, with white feet and belly, dark brown above, and about the size of a house-rat. Madagascar was long sup- posed to possess no rodents whatever ; but two genera have been lately ascertained to inhabit that island, so remarkable in its faunal features; these are Brachytarsomys and Nesomys, the latter notably peculiar in its dentition, as stated above. The large and beautiful genus Jlespero'inys, with its several sub-divisions and 110 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. numerous species, extending almost throughout Continental America, illustrates the New World Sigmodontes, with bi-tuberculate molars, perfectly ; and the common White- footed Mouse {If. leucopus) — also called Deer-Mouse, Wood-Mouse, and sometunes Field-Mouse — -is a good illustration of the genus. It occurs under several local races, nearly throughout North America. It is a pretty little creature, of some shade of fawn or buff color, obscured with darker along the back; the feet from wrist and ankle, and the whole under-parts, snowy white ; the tail close-haired throughout, two- colored to correspond with the darker upper and white under-parts ; the young ones are slate-grey. Its length is three or four inches, the tail averaging but little less. The eyes are full, the ears high and rounded, the limbs delicately fashioned, the whis- kers long. The form is lithe, aud the movements are agile and graceful. Like other species of this genus, it has small cheek-pouches, the existence of which was long Fig. 55. — Hesperomys leucopus, ^vliite-footed mouse. unsuspected. It inhabits all kinds of jtlaces, and in the West some varieties take up their residence with man as familiarly as house-mice. There are numerous local races or sub-species of JH^. leucopus. The Golden-Mouse {Hesperomys aicreolus) is still handsomer, with more vivid coloration, being golden-cinnamon above and yellowish- white below. This is confined to the Central and Southern States. H. michiganensis is a small dark-colored species, inhabiting portions of the Mississippi valley. H. califor- nicus is a large species, with nearly naked tail and ears. Other species of this immediate group occur in Mexico and Central America. The foregomg belong to a sub-generic group called Vesperimus. In South America there are numerous species, not so well worked up as might be desired, but all apparently sub-generically distinct from those of North America. The last-named half of the continent also furnishes two isolated species, forming, respectively, the sub-genera Omjchomi/s and Oryzomys. The former is the Missouri Mole-Mouse (// kucogaster), shaped some- thing like an Arvicola, with its short tail, less than half as long as the body, and enlarged fore feet. The system of coloration is, liowever, as in JIespero7nys proper, with snowy feet and under-parts. Tlie latter is the Rice-field Mouse (H. oryzomys) Mus minutus, harvest mouse. RODENTIA. Ill Fig. 5G. — Ochetodoit mexicaiius, natural size. of the southerly United States, especially along the Atlantic sea-board. This exceeds all the other North American Mespei-omi/s in size, being four or five inches long, the tail about the same, or rather more, and veiy scant-haired; the pelage is a dark, grizzly rat-color, and not distinctly bicolor ; so that, of all our native species, this one most resembles superficially some Old World species of JIus. The pelage is harsh, like that of Siffinodon hispidus. It should also be specially noted that this animal, or a related species of the sub-genus Oryzomys, occurs in Jamaica, furnishing the only instance of an American murine in the West Indies. Related to the white-foot mice proper, but quite distinct, are the curious little Harvest-mice of the genus Ochetodon. One would think, on first viewing one of these delicate and diminutive creatures, that it was a young house-mouse, so similar do they appear. But the harvest-mice have all the es- sential characters of American Sigmodonts, with the peculiarity that the upjier front teeth are deeply grooved — a feature only elsewhere found, among American Muridte, in the South American genus Reithrodon, and in the Arvico- line Syncqjtomys, above noted. These tiny creatures are among the very least of American quadrupeds, and appear to play the part in this country of the European 3Ius inimiMis. M. humilis, oi the Southern United States, is only two inches, or a trifle over, in length, the tail rather less ; it is colored like a house- mouse, but has a wash of tawny or fulvous along the flanks, and the under-parts fighter. 0. lonyicauda of California is similar, but longer tailed, as in 0. mexicanus. The genus extends to Guatemala at least. These little mice were originally referred to the genus Meithrodon, on account of the teeth, but very wrongly so. The species of Heithrodon are two or three Soutli American ones, different in almost every particular; they are M. cicniculoides and li. chinchilloides, so named from their respective resemblance to a rabbit and a chin- chilla. They both inhabit Patagonia. The genus Siymodon, giving name to the whole series of American murines, is based upon the well-known Cotton-rat of the Southern States {S. hispidus). It is a stout species, some five inches long, the tail an inch or so shorter ; of coarse, harsh pelage, intimately grizzled with blackish and yellowish-gray above, grayish-white below, with the tail indistinctly bicolor, and the soles of the feet black. It resembles the rice-field mouse not distantly, and both are of a non-committal aspect, suggesting a half-grown house-rat. It extends southwards to Guatemala ; chiefly coastwise. The most hasty survey of the Sigmodont Murina3 would be inexcusably incomplete without special mention of the large, handsome species of the genus Neotoma — the wood-rats and bush-rats of North and Middle America, sometimes exceeding the largest house-rat in dimensions. The best-known of these is the Florida Wood-rat {N. floridana), which inhabits most of the United States, but especially southern portions. The fur is soft and lustrous, pure white below and on the feet, yellowish-broM-n above, with a darker dorsal area, brighter on the flanks ; in the young the colors are slaty-gray and wliite. This animal is upward of nine inches long, the tail six or more, close-haired throughout, and distinctly marked to corresi)ond with the body-colors. The system 112 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. of coloration is tlius that of the white-footed mouse, and the form is much the same. N. fusciijes is a distinct species, of California, with the feet partly dusky, and a longer blackish tail. N. ferruginea of Mexico and Central America is similar, but smaller Fig. 57. — Sigmodon hispidus, cotton-rat, reduced. and much more richly colored, being of a warm rusty-red. In all the foregoing the tail is close-haired ; in the remarkable JV. cinerea of the Rocky Mountains this mem- ber is bushy, almost like a squirrel's tail. The hairs tend to flatten out, and with this distichous arrangement sometimes measure three inches across, though usually less. Fio. SS. — Neoloma floridana, Florida wood-rat, reduced. These wood-rats are the animals which liuild houses in the shape of great heaps of brushwood and other vegetation, several bushels being sometimos heajied up. In some cases great globular nests of miscellaneous trash are built in bushes or trees. The white-footed mice sometimes find the coumiodious premises of their more distinguished RODENTIA. 113 cousins to be eligible dwelling-places, and make themselves uninvited, but probably not unwelcome, guests. The flesh is white, clean, and well-flavored, superior for the table to rabbit or squirrel, and is an important item in the bill of fare of Indians in the Western Territories. Like magpies, the wood-rats have a very bad reputation for thieving ; any Fig. 59. — Neotoma fermginea, Mexican wood-rat, reduced. old squatter or miner has his stories to tell of the way they steal and drag into their holes everything they can lay hands on. We have seen cheek-pouches in some of the American Murinte ; and finishing this sub-family, at length we pass to the Cricetinre, or Hamsters, in which such organs are highl}- develo])ed — as is fortunate, perhaps, for there is little else to distinguish them, collectively, from Murinte. The hamsters are all Old World, occurring only in the Palse- arctic and Ethiopian regions. The European species {Cricetus frumentarius), which is also extensively dispersed in Asia, is a very well- known animal, often kejjt in confinement, about ten inches long, the hairy tail about two and a half inches. The color is usually yellowish- brown, with black, reddish, and yellowish markings on the head ; the under-jiarts and most of the limbs black, but the feet white. As implied in the specific name, this animal is a hoarder of grain and numberless other articles of diet, which it takes good care to store in its capacious underground galleries before it " turns in " for the winter. It is de- scribed as irritable and pugnaeiou.s, standing up courageously for itself before its enemies at whatever odds. It revives from its long hibernation early in the spring, pairs betimes, and produces, in May, and again during the summer, a very numerous VOL. V. — 8 iW^ «E£ Cricetus frumentarius, hamster. 114 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. progeny, which are ahiiost as precocious as guinea-pigs, having cut their teeth when born, and thereafter soon getting their eyes open, they know enough to shift for them- selves in a couple of weeks. There are other species of Cricetus in Asia. The African hamsters belong to different genera. Saccostomus lapidarius has smaller grain-sacks, weaker feet and claws, and some cranial peculiarities. Cricetomys gambianics is dis- tinguished by the grooved incisors, and long, scaly tail. Africa also harbors three notable genera of Muridfe, which have been combined in a sub-family, Dondromyina'. In Dendromys mesomelas the incisors are grooved ; the three middle digits of each foot are much longer than the first and fifth ; the general form is slender, and the scant-haired tail is long. This little animal, which is arboreal in habits, is of a grayish color, with a black stripe down the back. Steatomys jyratetisis, of Mozambique, is a similar creature, but stouter in form, with a short, thickly-haired tail. In Lophuroniys ater, of the same region, the pelage develops fine flattened bristles, and the incisors are not grooved. Eastern regions also furnish their quota of isolated and peculiar forms. The Phlceomys cuminyi of the Philippines, and the Indian Nesokia griffithi compose the sub-family PhloeomyinDe. Again, the Malabar coast yields us Platacanthomys lasiurits, sole member of a sub-family, Platacantliomyina?, in whicli, as in the Phloeomyina;, the molars are divided into transverse laminae. The Malabar animal somewhat resembles a dormouse ; the tail is densely hairy, and the pelage is mixed with flattened spines. The laminar condition of the teeth just mentioned is substantially repeated in the large group of the Gerbilles, widely distributed in the Old World, and constituting a sub-family, Gerbillina;. ' These are remarkable among Muridse, and only approached by the species of Hapalotis, in the great elongation of the hind limbs, which confers jerboa-like saltatorial powers. The gerbilles are jilump animals, with long hairy tails, broad heads, and sharp noses. They are chiefly African, but also inhabit India and Southeastern Europe, living in underground burrows, in which, like liamsters, they lay up great stores of provisions. It only remains, to conclude the Muridoe, to say a word respecting two remarkable genera which do not show the dental formula normal to the family. The species of Hydromys, composing the suit-family Hydiomyina;, are Water-mice of Australia, in which one molar is missing above and below, leaving |, — a character unique not only in this family, but in the order Rodentia. The hind feet appear to be modified to serve as paddles by partial webbing, like those of a muskrat. Several species are described, as H. chrysoyaster, H. leucogaster, and IT.fuliginosus. The Smithinte, consisting of the Sminthus vagus alone, present the opposite anomaly of redundancy, having a premolar on each side, above and below, the formula for the grinders being therefore |. This character prepares us to find again, in the family Myo.vidse, which is soon to follow, that premolar which we have not hitherto seen since we left the mole-rats (Spalacidse). Smithus is a small rodent of wide distri- bution in Europe and Asia. The family Lophiomyid.e, or Skull-caps, is based upon a single species, Lophiomys imhmisi, an extraordinary animal, described in 1867 by M. A. Milne-Edwards, from whose monograph we condense a brief account. For a long time only one individual, brought alive to Paris from some uncertain country, was known ; but latterly three additional specimens have come to light, and its patria ascertained to be the Ethiopian RODENTIA. 115 region, particularly Abyssinia. The creature somewhat resembles a skunk in its black- and-white striped coloration, and is four-handed like an ojjossum. It is rather larger than a guinea-pig, with a stout form, low on the legs, and a bushy tail nearly as long as the body ; the pelage is very long, forming a sort of crest or mane all along the back, which can be elevated or depressed at will, the equally long hairs of the sides of the body falling down, leaving a furrow between themselves and those of the mane. In this gi-oove are spongy hairs of a peculiar microscopic structure, different from those of any other quadruped. The feet have small, sharp claws. The paws have five toes, but the thumb is very short ; the inner toe of the hind foot, on the contrary, is well developed, freely mobile, and opposable to the others, as in opossums and monkeys generally. It is rarely that we are permitted to see in a single species of quadruped characters not elsewhere found in the whole class Mammalia ; but to find the parallel of the cranial peculiarities of the creature we have to look to reptiles; for the skull, though murine in most respects, is surmounted by a dome of articulated, granular, bony plates, — singular structures which may be regarded as an enormous exagger- ation of the temporal crests, these being so expanded laterally as to bend down and join the similarly modified zygomatic arches, thus roofing in the temporal fossae. The first bone of the spinal coluum, the atlas, is granular like the cranial dome. The dentition is murine, the molars being | as usual, rooted, and resembling those of Cricetus. The clavicles are imperfect. The caecum is small. The peculiar cranial structm-e of the paca ( Ccelogenys paca — see p. 84 — ) may be noted in this connection, though the character of the anomaly is different in the two cases. The family Myoxid^ contains the dormice, — elegant little creatures, which might be called sq\iirrel-mice, so near are they in real affinity, as well as in sujiierficial aspect and in habits, to the squirrels. Their structure, however, is substantially myomorphic, and they differ, not only from both mice and squirrels, but from all other rodents as well, in having no caecum, — an appendage which, but for this exception, one might have considered indispensable for the convenience of the gnawers. There are also some peculiarities in the stomach, which is simple in most genera, but complicated in Muscardiims. There is a premolar above and below, the grinders being therefore | ; the molars are all rooted, and have transverse folds of enamel. The dormice are con- fined to the Old World, and are widely distributed in Europe and Asia, with some outliers in Africa. Their form is neat and gracile ; they have full eyes, high ears, well- shapen limbs, and a long hairy tail, which in 3Ii/oxus proper is bushy and distichous throughout ; in 3fuscarcUnus is bushy but cylindrical throughout ; in Eliomys is tufted and flattened at the end, while in Gro2)hiurus it is shorter, and Uke a lead-pencil, as the name shows. The last-named is the African outlier. There are about a dozen species in all of the four genera mentioned. The Common Dormouse {31yoxus avellanarius) is a very pretty form, wdth a squirrel- like tail, which sits n\) on end and handles its hazel or beech-nuts with all the air of a squirrel, and displays no less agility in skipping about the shrubbery and tangle it inhabits and forages in — sometimes hanging head downwards by the hind feet, again crawling adroitly along the vmderside of a horizontal branchlet. It is chiefly nocturnal, and at the approach of cold weather, when it has laid on a good coat of fat, it crawls into a snug nest, constructed for the purpose, curls up in a ball, wraps itself uji in its tail, and goes to sleep. From this lethargy, however, it may awaken at intervals during the winter, if the weather be mild. The family of little dormice usually numbers three 116 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. or four ; and either the parent breeds more than once a year, or else is very irregular in her periods. The species is a wide-ranging one in Europe, in southern portions of ■\\hich continent, where it is more abundant than at the north, it occurs in company with the two otlier larger European species, the Loir {M. glis) and the Lerot {E. nitela), both about six inches long, the dormouse being only about three. Fig. 61. — Mf/oxus glis, loir, and J£liomijs nitela, lerot, natural size. The fossils known to be myoraorjihic (aside from those mentioned under Theri- domyidte) are numerous, but those which have been well-determined are, for the most part, closely related to living forms. They carry the history of this alliance back to the eocene, and among them are represented several of the families we have discussed, especially the Murida; and Myoxidte. Passing by some which are insufficiently known, those considered by Alston as probably referable to the Muridje are Cricetodon, Eumys, Mysops, and Heliscornys. Though neither so extensive nor so multifarious as the other great rodent alliances, the SCIUROMORPHA are a diversified series in form and function, ranging from the large, heavy, aquatic beaver, or the terrestrial and fossorial marmots, on the one hand, to the small and agile arboreal squirrels, some of which almost fly through the air by the singular means ^ith which they alone of rodents are }irovided. The prime peculiarity of this series is the distinctness of the leg-bones from each other, the fibula being almost invariably free from the tibia, and not, as in the Leporine series, articu- lated with the heel-bone. The collar-bones are perfect. The angular part of the jaw- bone is substantially as in the Murine series, springing from the under border of the bone, not from its outer side, as in the Hystrieines. Premolar teeth are always present; there may be one on each side of each jaw, or two above only. In the former case (V), the single premolar on each side, above and below, is large, and resembles the other grinders; in the latter (|), the anterior upper premolar is always RODENTIA. 117 small, sometimes minute or early cleciiluous. The molars may be either rooted or rootless. There are several cranial characters, among them the great part the malar-bone takes in forming the zygomatic arches. Post-orbital processes are present or absent ; they are present in Sciuridoe, and the great numerical preponder- ance of this family makes their absence in other families seem exceptional. The muffle is substantially as in Murines, naked and cleft, with commii^shaped nostrils. Excepting the beaver, the tail is hairy, often bushy, and either cylindrical or dis- tichous; it is long in most genera. The group is nearly cosmopolitan. There are six families, two of them, however, being extinct. So far as the living forms are concerned, the Sciurine series connects with the Murine by the relation between the true squirrels and the squirrel-like dormice ; but we shall find it convenient to first consider the fossil families related to the beavers, and then pass from the latter through the sewellel to the marmot squirrels, and thence through the tree and flying squirrels to the similarly flying Anomalures. The first of these families of fossils is the Castoroidid.e. " The so-called ' Fossil Beaver,' of North America," says Mr. Allen, the latest monographer of the extraordi- nary animal, " was of about the size of a full-grown common Black Bear ( Ursus americanus), hence somewhat exceeding in size the Capybara, the largest of existing Rodents. A cast of a skull now before me has a length of over twelve inches." This Titan of the rodents is generally thought to have the afiinity to the beaver that its name implies ; but great differences between the two types were early pointed out by Dr. Wyman, and further elaborated by Mr. Allen, who exhibits the singular combination of characters which ally the animal on the one hand to the beaver, and on the other to the Chinchillida?, but at the same time distinguish it from either. The likeness to Castor is mainly in the generic configuration of the skull, many details of which are carried out as in Chinchilla. A sejaarate family has therefore to be made to accommo- date the single genus and species, Castoroides ohioejisis. Mr. Allen thinks, how- ever, that some imperfectly known remains from the bone caves of Anguilla Island, called Amblyi-hiza and Loxomylus, and supposed to be chinchilline, may also prove to belong here. Castoroides was discovered at Nashport, Muskingum County, Ohio, and first described in 1837 ; various specimens have since been found in different localities from New York to Texas, and from Michigan to South Carolina. A remark.able rodent from the miocene of North America combines the denti- tion of a typical squirrel with cranial characters like those of a beaver, and espe- cially of a miocene beaver, such as Steneofiber; but differs from both in the large infra-orbital foramen, and from Castor in several res]3ects. Upon these considerations INIr. Alston forms the family Ischyeomyidj: for the reception of the genus Ischijromys. While we are occupied with these extinct Sciuromorphs, we may allude to several other fossil genera more or less nearly related to the living beaver which we shall pres- ently notice. Well-determined genera, such as Diobroticus (pliocene) and Steneofiber (miocene), are really extinct beavers, falling as far as they ai'e known within the limits of the family Castoridae, as framed for the beaver. Others, more uncertain, but belonging here or hereabouts, are such as HJucastor, Paleeocastor, Chalicomys, Palwo- mys, and Trogontherium. Such considerations as these would lead us to suppose that the beaver of to-day is the surviving link in a chain of forms, or line of develop- ment, which, if traced back to the point where the Sciurine and the Hystricine series 118 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. began to diverge, would be found connected with some such form as Castoroides, which combines characters of these two great groups. The living genus Haplodon., probably now approaching extinction, is certainly a very perfect connecting link between the beaver-like animals and the typical Sciuridje. The beaver, for which, as has just been said, the family Castorid^ was formed, is one of the largest and heaviest of existing rodents, and of very sturdy organiza- tion, especially in the hinder parts of the body. It sometimes attains a weight of fifty or sixty pounds, though generally only about forty-five. The tail is remarkable, both in its shape and in its naked scaly covering, being very broad and heavy, flattened and spoon-shaped. The head and body of the beaver are about two feet long, the tail about ten inches. The hind feet are large and webbed, and the second digit usually bears a curious " dew-claw," appearing as if doubled ; the fore feet are comparatively small and neat, and there is a supplementary ossicle among the wrist-bones. The low rounded ears are nearly hidden in the fur. It is hardly necessary to describe this the best known of all commercial furs, ■ — one so long and so univerally em- ployed that the name of " beaver '' is attached to various fine fabrics which have nothing whatever to do with the animal itself. Such pelage exhibits the perfection of a water-proof covering for a thoroughly aquatic creature, with its dense and copious pile of soft grayish under-fur, overlaid with polished and glistening chestnut-brown hairs. More technical characters must also be noticed. The skull is sciurine, but more massive than is usual in Sciuridje, and devoid of the jjost-orbital processes so conspicu- ous in the squiri-els. The infra-orbital foramen is small, and placed far down in the root of the zygoma; the middle Ime of the skull rises in a sagittal crest. The back teeth are |, with one premolar above and below on each side ; they are of sub-equal size throughout, complicated with re-entering enamel-folds, and semi-rooted; that is to say, the pulp-cavities long remain open, so that the teeth continue to grow as they wear, till finally the roots close up and the growth ceases. The stomach has a glandular ap- pendage ; and the termination of the digestive canals receives that of the uro-genital organs in a common cloaca. The Weberian vesicles (or "male uterus") are highly developed. There are very large salivary glands, forming a sort of collar in the throat, like a goitre; while at the other end of the body are developed those glandular pouches which secrete the remarkable substance known in commerce as castoreum, and highly esteemed from the most remote times as an article of medicinal virtue. Its use nowadays is chiefly the more practical one of rubbing en beaver traps to attract the animal itself by the scent, and efface the trace of human contact with the instrument. The "scent bags" are among the number of accessory sexual structures with which the beaver is remarkably well provided. The beaver's family-relations having all died out, the animal now stands alone as the Castor fiber of naturalists. The question whether there is more than one species has long been argued. The truth would appear to be that there are some appreciable peculiarities bj' which the American may usually be distinguished from the European animal. In C. fiber proper the forehead, measured on the skull between the eye-sockets, is generally as broad as, or broader than, long, the nasal bones extending backwards beyond the posterior border of the ante-orbital processes ; and the auditory bulbs are comparatively forward in position, the basilar cavity being proportionally deep and large. In the American sub-species, C. fiber canadensis, the opposite details of cranial RODENTIA. 119 structure prevail. There are no positive outward differences, though the American is, on the average, a larger and " better " animal. The range of the beaver has extended over nearly all of the Northern Hemisphere, in wooded country at least. But the incessant persecution which it has suffered for the sake of its robe and scent-bags has exterminated it from extensive areas in both hemispheres. In the British Islands it has long been extinct, though there is historical evidence of its former presence ; and it has disappeared from much of Southern and Fig. 6L'. — Castor fiber, beaver, one-tenth natural size. Western Europe. In America it formerly extended across the continent, and from Mexico northward to the limit of trees. It is almost exterminated in the United States east of the Mississip]ii — though we have lately heard of a considerable colony in Virginia, and there are remnants elsewhere, as in Maine. In wooded regions in the West, notably the Rocky Mountains, it is still abundant ; and within a very few ye.ars a writer has traced it at various points from the British nearly to the Mexican border, along the upper Missouri river, about the headwaters of the Platte in Colorado, and the Rio Verde in Arizona. 120 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. Fitted, as it is, for a thoroughly aquatic life, and enabled in this way to successfully elude enemies, excepting man, the beaver, nevertheless, lias need to exercise all its wits for self-preservation. Doubtless these have been sharpened by necessity, and the animal has become a modfel of instinctive sagacity, besides developing many interesting traits which flow from the organization of society and a community of labor and interest. Its industry has even given rise to a proverb, " working like a beaver ; " and the extent of its operations, in felling trees, damming streams, and building houses, is not easily overrated. But numberless writers upon this fertile and suggestive theme have been too easily betrayed into fanciful exaggeration of the facts, making the beaver a marvel of reflective, purposive, and co-operative intelligence — an imaginary picture which an appeal to nature does not justify. It is repeatedly stated, for example, that beavers only cut down trees which they can use in building their dams, and that they can so gnaw them as to make them fall exactly where they wished them to lie. During a voyage once made by the writer, for about a thousand miles in an open boat, down the Missouri River — from Benton to Bismarck — beavers were found to be very abundant in the upper portions of this course. They were constantly seen swimming in the water ; the plash of their tails as they dived from the surface was one of tlie sounds that most frequently broke the stillness of the night-camp ; in some districts the " slides," or ])aths made in going uji and down the soft loamy banks of the river, were passed hourly ; cut sticks were floating everywhere, or strewn along the water's edge, or lodged in masses. But I noticed trees in process of being felled which could not have fallen in any available position, nor, indeed, into the water at all. In one res2)ect, however, the beaver's powei's can scai'cely be exaggerated, and this is the size of the trees they some- times fell. I measured a giant poplar, which was about half cut through just above the base, and found it a trifle o\er nine feet in circumference at the point of attack. In such large cuttings as these, the way in which the animals use their teeth is very clearly shown. The wood is gnawed in parallel furrows across the grain, these furrows being two or three inches apart ; then the chip between them is evidenth' bitten or wrenched out ; for in the furrows the marks of the teeth are plain, while between the gouges only the torn fibre of the wood is seen. The result is exactly that accomplished by an axeman in knocking out a chip by a cut above and below it. But the appearance of the stump left by the beaver is very different ; the tree having been gnawed into all around its circumference, an hour-glass shape results, with contracting centre, till the tree falls to whatever side it inclines, and the stump, as well as the cut end of the trunk, is conical. A woodsman makes a tree fall to suit himself, by cutting from oj>j)Osite sides, not all around. No beaver could learn this trick. What the beaver has found out is that by biting a tree long enough and hard enough he can bring the twigs which he wants to eat down within reach. So he knows enough to fell a tree, but does not know why or how it falls. Much tree-felling is done by beavers, without any reference to dam-building, to secure the twigs and smaller branches for food, and the latter for house-building. Many dams are also built of small stuff, herbage, mud, etc., without any logs of wood. Beavers also live, like muskrats or otters, largelj- in holes in the banks. A relic of the j)ast survives over a small area on the west coast of North America, in Washington and Oregon Territories, and a portion of California. This is the " Showt'l " or " Sewellel " of the aborigines, who entertain some curious speculations concerning the relations of the creature to the architect of the universe ; known to RODE NT I A. 121 more prosaic hunters and trapjiers as the " Boomer " or " Mountain Beaver." Haplodon riifus is of about the size and general appearance of the muskrat, but has ahnost no tail, this member only appearing as a pencil of hairs about an inch and a half long; the length of the head and body is about twelve inches. The form is very stout ; the head is broad and flat, with a blunt muzzle, small beady eyes, moder- ate ears, and very long whiskers ; the limbs are short ; there is no appreciable neck. The color is brownish, lighter and grayer be- low. Such an animal, like a de- generate beaver stranded in the mountains away from water, lives in colonies, in burrows under- ground, upon various vegetable substances. Its technical characters show it to be related to the beaver, yet to be almost as much of a marmot ; also that it has peculiaiities of its own sufficient to found a family, Haplodontid^. The feet are both five-toed ; the hinder are neither en- larged nor webbed. Enormous salivary glands encircle the neck with a glandular collar. Fig. 63. — Side view of skull of Haplodon. Fig. 64.— Upr>er view of skuU of Haplodon. Fig. 65. — Skull of Haplodon from beneath. The outlets of the digestive and uro-genital organs are separate ; associate glandular struc- tures are few and simple ; the testes are abdominal ; there is a forked penis-bone. The coBCum is voluminous, as long as the body ; the intestines are about eleven times as long. The skull is sciurine, but lacks any trace of post-orbital processes ; it is remark- ably pinched between the orbits, else\\here massive, greatly flattened, and very broad behind, where the zygomas flare widely apart. Aside from tlie matter of the post-orbital 122 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. processes, the general configuration of the skull is as much like that of a marmot as of a beaver. The clavicles are jjerfect ; the tibia and fibula distinct, though closely apposed. Tiie dentition is numerically as in Seiurids (pm. |) ; the teeth are rootless and prismatic, but of very simple structure, as the name Ilaplodon (simple-tooth) indicates ; the special pattern of their crowns is, however, unique. In such a structure it is obvious that we have here a connecting link between the beaver and the squiiTel families. The general economy of the sewellel, as far as known, resembles that of a woodchuck. It enjoys little distinction among white men, and is hardly known except to naturalists ; but it has long been hunted by the Indians, who use its skin for robes, and doubtless also eat its flesh, as they do everything else that can sustain life. It is not probable that Haplodon would very long survive the settlement of the small area it inhabits. The family Sciurid^, or Squirrels, is by far the largest of the Sciurine series, and its typical members are the most highly specialized of rodents. Nevertheless, the Sciuridse offer for consideration a wide range of variation which passes by very gentle gi'adations from the large, heavy, terrestrial and f ossorial marmots, or ground-hogs, with their short limbs, ears, and tail, on the one hand, through the chipmunks, which stand exactly on the dividing line, to the agile, graceful, and perfectly arboreal squirrels, whose trim limbs and long shadowy tails present the opposite end of the series, the extreme link of which is furnished by the almost aerial flying squirrels. Throughout these modifi- cations of outward form, and consequently of habit, one set of technical characters prevails. The skull has large and distinct jiost-orbital processes, not developed else- where in the Sciurine alliance. There are normally two jn-emolars on each side above, and one below ; the first of these, however, is always small, and often deciduous, so that different individuals of the same species even may have the back teeth ■/ or |. The molars are rooted and tuberculate ; the palate is broad and flat ; the infra-orbital foramen is small and anterior in position. Cheek-jjouches are frequently developed, especially in the ground-squirrels. The tail ranges from a stump to the elegant bushy appendage which may surpass the head and body in length and width, and by the distichous arrangement of the hairs furnish a kind of awning to cover the animal ; whence the pretty name of " shade-tail " (Sciuncs), which the Greeks and Romans gave. There is, perhaps, no more closely and evenly linked chain of animals, of equal extent, than that which has a woodchuck at one end and a flying-squirrel at the other. Two su1>families are commonly recognized, Arctomyinre and Sciminag, or ground- squirrels and tree-squirrels ; but they blend in the genus Tamias, so that no positive characters can be ascribed, though the average differences are considerable, as just noted. The family, as a whole, is nearly cosmopolitan, being absent only from the Australian region. Tree-squirrels abound in the torrid as well as the temperate zone, while the ground-squirrels are more northerly on the whole, being confined to temperate and colder latitudes. The centre of abundance of the former is the Indian region ; the Ethiopian has a long list of species ; North America comes next ; while South America and Europe are very poor in Sciurina3. North America is richest in the Arctomyina?, her ground-squirrels being numerous and diversified ; Asia is next most so. The marmots jiroper, woodehucks, or ground-hogs (Arctomijs) are the largest and heaviest animals of the family, measuring up to two feet in length, with short bushy Arctomys bobac, bobac. RODENTIA. 123 Fig. C6. — Head of woodcliuck with deformed teeth. tail, low ears, and long coarse hair. Cheek-pouches are small or wantini,^ and the claw of the thumb is a broad, flat nail ; the skull is massive, not far removed from the con- dition found in Ilaplodon. These well-known animals inhabit North America, Asia, and Europe up to quite high latitudes, and also various Alpine localities. The principal Old World species are the Marmot proper {A. marmotta), and the Bobac {A. bobac), each of which occurs both in Europe and Asia. There are three distinct North Amer- ican species ; the Woodchuck (^-1. monax), so generally distributed in the United States and Canada; the Yellow-bellied Marmot of the Rocky Mountains {^A. flavwentris) ; and the large Hoary Marmot or Whistler of more northerly regions (^A. jyruinosus). Marmots generally live in colonies, in bur- rows or among rocks ; but the woodchuck is more solitary in its habits, as its name inonax (the monk) implies. All these ani- mals hibernate ; the appearance of the wood- chuck early in the spring, after his long re- tirement, is a weather prophecy generally credited by the rural jjopulation as good for the next six weeks, and no doubt this four- footed prophet is more reliable than some of the human weather-wise. " Woodchuck-day " is even set down in some rustic calendars; but it seems to shift like the movable holy-days of the Mother Church and her recusant Anglican offshoot. When numerous, the " chucks " are a great pest, for they eat everything green, and are almost ineradicable. Though quite terrestrial, they make shift to climb, and are often seen on fences and in low trees. Though the Prairie Marmots of the genus Cynomys are smaller than the foregoing, they are even stouter in form, with very sturdy organization, powerful dentition (the broad molar sei-ies convergent posteriorly), and the shortest tails and lowest ears of any members of the family. They are close-haired, even to the tail ; the cheek-pouches are small ; the nail of the thumb is well developed ; and the forepaws with their crooked claws, are very effective instruments for the mining operations in which the lusty and truculent little creatures engage so extensively. These famous quadrupeds, universally known in Western parlance as " Prairie-dogs," from the sharp barking cries which they incessantly reiterate, inhabit tiie Western prairies and mountain plateaux of North America, from the eastern edge of the plains to the Pacific slopes, and from British America, among the northern tributaries of the Milk River, nearly or quite to the Mexican border. There are two distinct species, whose range is, on the whole, separated by the main chain of the Rocky Mountains — C. luclovicianus on the eastern side, C. cohimbkuins on the other. The former is some thirteen inches long, the tail three or four inches. The pelage is short and coarse, and on the back (as in the case of various ground-squirrels) it appears as if sand-pajiered down, being actually abraded by incessant contact with the ground in rubbing through the burrows. The color is a pale or hoary chestnut-bro-\vn, pencilled with black hairs, giving way on the under- parts to soiled whitish or pale ochre. The tail is tipped and bordered part way with blackish, furnishing one of the distinctions from the other species, which is a smaller one, with shorter and lighter-colored tail. The ]irairie-dogs live in colonies, sometimes 124 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. of immense extent; one may travel for hours through these great encampments, or " dog-to \ras ; " the hillocks evei-ywhcre, each with its tenant bolt-upright at the mouth of his hole, with the fore paws folded down, vociferating his curiosity or displeasure, and on too near approach ducking down like an automaton on springs, with a saucy " good- by — I-have-business " flirt of the tail. These sharp cries are incessant ; as each note is emitted the body shakes and the tail jerks, the whole appearance being ludicrously like a toy barking-dog, which squeaks and drojjs the jaw as you press the little bellows. The mounds amount sometimes to several bushels of dirt, brought up from below, and Fig. C7. — Ctjnomijs ludovicianus, prairie-dog. also in some cases scraped together to improve tliem as observatory-stations ; they are often repaired vc\t\\ care, and well-worn tracks usually radiate from them in every direction. The subterranean galleries are of great extent — so great that one would hardly think of trying to dig out or drown out the occupant. Sterile, sandy, or gravelly soil seems to be preferred, and places where the creatures are most abundant are usually in the most arid and desolate regions, where, furthermore, the scant)' herbage is so nearly cleared away that one wonders how so many animals can find sustenance, to say nothing of water, of which clement they apjiear to be almost independent. Cy- nomys is not easily caj^tured or killed ; and, when taken, long remains savage and in- tractable. But it may be tamed ; and I have known a number to be domesticated — living in holes in the front yard of the house, coming when called to be fed, taking food from one's hands, and sitting on one's knee to eat it. RODENTIA. 126 The myth of the communism fabled to exist between prairie-dogs, owls, and rattle- snakes, ought perhaps not to be brought up, even for the purpose of denouncing it as sheer nonsense. But we observe that " Cassell's Natural History " gives a wonderfully fanciful engraving, even though the very competent author of the article "Rodentia" in that work expressly says that this paradisiac picture is an imaginary one. I suspect this particular illustration originated in a flight of Teutonic fancy. The birds and the reptiles abound in the same regions the mammals inhabit, finding the deserted burrows of the latter eligible retreats, of which they avail themselves without stint. But the owls also burrow for themselves, in many cases at least. The true inwardness of their mutual relations is, that owls and snakes are enemies of each other, and both of the marmots. The birds would devour the young marmots if they could get at them, and do devour the young snakes ; and the snakes devour the young marmots, the owlets, and the eggs of the owls. The numerous species of Ground-squirrels {SjxrmopJdlus) present a series of forms graded from one extreme, in which the stout-bodied, short-tailed, crop-eared species are scarcely distinguished from Cynoniys, to the other, where lighter-built species with high ears and long bushy tails resemble chi]:)niunks, or even true squirrels. All have cheek-pouches, and appear to preserve both the upper premolars. The thumb is short, but furnished with a claw, not a nail. These animals are highly developed in North America, where a dozen species inhabit the country from the Mississippi valley (in a broad sense) west, southwest, and northwest to the Pacific, Mexico, and Alaska; none, however, occur in the Atlantic States. They are often called "gophers," and in culti- vated regions are almost as obnoxious as the true gophers ( Geomyidw). The habits and characteristics of the short-tailed prairie species, like the Tawny Sjiermojjhile {S. rich- ardsoni), for example, which abounds in the upper Missouri and Milk River region, might be described in almost identical terms with those used in speaking of the prairie-dogs, though they scarcely colonize in such numbers, and do not burrow so deeply. They are smaller than the species of Cynomys, and lighter-colored. The opposite extreme is furnished by such a species as S. franHinifthn " Gray Gopher," or "gray prairie-squirrel," which reminds one of the common Gray Squirrel {Sciurus carolinensis). This is nine or ten inches long, the bushy tail six or seven, the ears quite high. It is one of the most eastern species, extending from Indiana and Illinois to Kansas, Nebraska, and Dakota, and northward to 64°. Another large squirrel-tailed species is S. grcamminis, which in some of its varieties extends from the Rocky Mountains t6 the Pacific, and from Oregon into Mexico. It is so squirrel-like, in fact, as to form by it.self a subdivision of the genus, characterized externally by the size of the tail and ears. A variety of this animal {beecheyi) is the great jiest in the cultivated portions of California, where it is extremely abundant. The prettiest species of the genus — one of the smaller kinds, found far eastward with S. franJdini — is the Thirteen-lined or "Stars and Stripes" (»?. tridecem-Uneatus), curiously so named for the original States of the American Union, in an outburst of Yankee patriotism. Tlie ground-color is a rather dark reddisli-brown or blackish-brown, on which are curiously traced six or eight light lines, alternating with five or seven rows of light spots ; the rather narrow tail is j-ellowish-brown, bordered all around with black, this again with the yellowish tips of the hairs. It is six or eight inches long, the tail about four and a half, including the hairs; the ears are closely cropped, — a mere rim. Another elegantly-marked species is the Mexican Spermophile {S. mexicamcs), about eight inches long, the tail to the end of the hairs five or six inches ; of a dark brown color, 126 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. with about ten rows of squarish wliite spots, and tlie tail fraiiicJ in a black border. /S. spilosofna is another spotted species of Mexico and the southwestern border. Parry's Marmot-squirrel (*S'. em^^ietra) is a large species of the high North and Northwest, with small ears, a short but bushy tail ; it is very variable in color, according to locality, but is usually mixed black and tawny, with crowded white spots, the top of the head chest- nut-brown, the under-parts rusty white. This Spermophile is related to some Old World forms, of which the best^known is the Souslik {S. citillus) of Europe and Asia. Several other species inliabit each hemisphere. All of them are bright, active, and industrious creatures, more or less sociable and gregarious in disposition, often seen playing about in the vicinity of tlieir burrows, into wliicli they scamper on the least Fk. I - Spermophilus tiidecem ttncatus, thirteen lined spermophile alarm, never popping their noses above ground again till they think the coast is clear. They have a very characteristic habit of sitting bolt-u]iright, with the paws demurely hanging down or even crossed, as we so often hold our hands in de]irecatory moments. They lay up great stores of provisions in their underground retreats, and usually hibernate in winter. But this depends entirely upon the species, and even upon the latitude, in the case of the same species. They are very prolific ; the mamma3 are usually eight or ten, and there are sometimes twelve, in six pairs. It is a very short step from the SjJermophiles to the Ground-squirrels proper, or Chipmunks ( Tamias), — a small genus comprising some of the prettiest and most familiar representatives of the family, in all respects standing exactly between the two extremes pointed out above. In fact, one species has usually been called Sper- mophibts, and another was known as Sciurus before the genus Tamias was established. Cheek-pouches are best developed in this group. The teeth vary ; some species retain RODENTIA. 127 both upper premolars (|), as in the foregoing genera, while one species drops one of them (3). All agree in possessing tasteful strijjes of color on the back and haunches; they are aU small, with good ears and a flat bushy tail, from one-half to the whole length of the head and body. One of the species, the smallest ( 2\ asiaticics) is common to both hemispheres, but in North America runs into several varieties, usually given distinct names. The Four-striped Chipmunk ( T. quadrivittatus) is the best-known, having a very wide distribution, nearly co-extensive with that of the whole genus Spermophihts. This has on the back four white or whitish stripes, enclosed within five black or dark ones ; the flanks bright rust color. It is the smallest species, only four or five inches long, the slim tail about as much more. It varies greatly in coloration, according to locality. The Eastern Chipmunk {2\ striatus) is larger, with a relatively Fig. 69. — Tamias striatus, chipmunk. shorter and less flimsy tail, about three-fourths as long as the head and body ; the color- ation is livelier, becoming quite reddish on the haunches, and there are five black stripes, but only two white streaks, one on each side of the body. This is the bright and engaging little fellow that we see trailing along the fence-rail or the top of the stone-wall, scampering home with his cheeks jiuffed out, crammed with seeds or nuts — to make room for which we may fancy he dispenses with one pair of the teeth which quadrivittatus finds it convenient to retain. The Mountain Chipmunk {T. lateralis) is a lai-gei- and shorter-tailed species of the whole Rocky Mountain region, from Mexico to lat. -57° at least ; it is about eight inches long, the tail, with the haii's, only four to four and a half; the coloration light brownish-gray, whitish below, with two black stripes on each side, enclosing a white streak. T. harrisi of the Southwestern Terri- tories is a related species, quite similar to the last, with two white stripes, one on each side, which, however, are not set in black. These chiefly inhabit rocky places, and the 128 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. " windfalls" wliicli often make travelling in the Rocky Mountains so laborious ; but they also climb trees very readily. We are thus brought to the true arboreal squirrels — those agile and graceful crea- tures which find their home in the trees, under the double umbrage of the foliage and their own shady tails. Sciurus is a very large and nearly cosmopolitan genus, of numerous species differing in details of form, size, and coloration, yet withal so much alike that almost any one species might serve to illustrate the whole, — and who is tliere to whom a squirrel is not one of the most familiar of animals? The Greek s/doiiros, the Latin sciurus, the French escureuil, or ecureuil, the English squirrel (formerly spelled squyrrell and in other ways), are all the same word, indicating the chief ornament of the creatures, — which, when they are sitting up and handling their nuts so adroitly, curves over the back as far as the arch of the bodj', and then curls gracefully away, like the revolute scroll of a Corinthian capital ; or, when the little animals run about, trails, lightly arched, after them like a fox's brush. The species to which the name was originally applied is, of course, the common European one, now known as Scimms vulgaris, type of the whole genus. It most resembles the Chickaree of North America {jS. hud^onius). The latter cotmtry is rich in squirrels, harboring many other species, which, collectively, represent all but one of the leading modifica^ tions of the genus. But before mentioning any of these, we must call attention to some technicalities. No animals are more inconsistent than squirrels in coloration. Leading, as they do, the most active lives, playing incessantly in light and shade, and constantly exposed to those subtle influences which affect the tints of natural objects, they present such variations as to have given rise to tlie saying among trained naturalists that "color is nothing in a squirrel; " and one who incautiously relies too much upon coloration in discriminating species will learn by humiliating experience how much truth there is in the adage. I do not mean that color, and especially the pattern of coloration, should not be used as a specific character; indeed, there is often no other; nor that compara- tively slight differences in coloration may not truly stamp geographical races ; but that color-tests of species must be judiciously applied. Squirrels are peculiarly liable to be affected by the accidents of melanism and erythrism. The former may produce a perfectly black individual from gray or reddish parents ; while the latter sometimes so profoundly touches the organism that even the bones are reddened. Albinism, on the contrary, is very rare among these rodents, though white mice and white rabbits are common enough, as every one knows. Ignorance of the laws of color-variation has caused nominal species without number to be introduced in the scientific system. For example, four-fifths of the described species of North America are mere varieties, or pure synonyms. No more tlian six perfectly distinct ones are known to inhabit North America, north of Mexico, out of the great number described and figured by Audu- bon and Bachman, and the more moderate list given by Baird twenty-five years ago. And until the species of other parts of the world have received the same critical study which Allen and Alston have so successfully ajiplied to those of America, it will remain futile to attempt to guess how many kinds there really are. The Indian species, in particular, are very numerous, and in a state of dire confusion. Africa also presents a long array of species, but somewhat better determined. Mexico and Central and South America have eleven or twelve species, all but one or two of them confined to those countries. The African squirrels in general show a tendency to have scant-haired and harsh. RODENTIA. 129 or even hispid coats ; and in some cases this condition reaches the extreme in whicli spines are developed among the coarse and staring hairs. This state, when fully established, constitutes the genus JCerus. Such a sjjecies as JC. rutilans, some twenty inches long, with low ears and rather terrestrial than arboreal habits, would seem to represent the spermophiles in the Ethioiiian regions. But the transition does not seem to be abrupt ; and an approach to the same condition is to be noticed in some of the Central American squirrels. We have also seen that the development of spines in the fur is no uncommon thing in rodents of warm countries ; for, aside from the porcupines, we have several instances in the Octodontidw, Saccomyida;, and Muridoe. It is parallel with the tendency of numberless plants to become prickly in hot, dry regions, by hardening of the tissue, their twigs, and leaves into thorns. These " Hedge-hog squirrels," as they may be termed, being put aside, the six North American species very well illustrate the whole genus. We note, in the first jilace, that no unvarying dental formula is applicable. At different ages, the same individual may have one or two upper premolars on each side, according to whether or not it retains the minute anterior one. Such is the case with the small red squirrel. Tlie various " gray " squirrels appear to retain both, as a rule ; on the contrary, in the large "fox" or "cat" squirrels, one is the normal numbei-. The Chickaree, or Hackee, or Red Squirrel {S. hudsonius) is one of the smallest and prettiest species in America, representing the common European squirrel. It is the northernmost of all, ranging from the northern tier of States and Territories (in alpine regions further south) to the limit of trees in British America, and being in the greater part of this range the sole representative of its genus. It connects with Tamias in the smallness of the tail, which, with the hairs included, is shorter than the head and body ; and also in the presence of a sharp black streak along the flanks. The length is usually only eight inches, sometimes less. The upper parts are more or less reddisli ; the under are usually white ; the tail rusty with a black fringe. The ears are commonly tufted with a pencil of hairs, at least in winter. In the West it runs into three color-varieties, which, as they correspond with definite faunal areas, are regarded as good sub-species. The Chickaree so abundant in the Rocky Mountains, at least as far south as Colorado, is one of the best^marked of these {S.fremonti). The "gray" squirrels are another group of species of medium and rather large size, with more or less fulvous in the gray of the back and flanks. The Gray Squirrel {S. carolinensis) is the best-known exanijile of this style, being common in Eastern North America, from Canada to the Gulf, but not found in the West. It averages about ten inches in length, — the tail rather more, — but varies greatly in size ; Southern specimens being smaller than Northern ones, and also browner. This coloration runs into melanism, the gray squirrel being sometimes perfectly black ; and a large Northern example of this kind is obviously liable to be mistaken for a black-fox squirrel (see beyond). In the Southwest a similar gray squirrel occurs, and extends from Arizona into Mexico ( *S'. arizonensis) ; it appears to be a perfectly distinct species, with a very large tricolor tail, much exceeding the head and body in length. The most beautiful and one of tlie largest species is the chestinit-backed Gray Squirrel (S. aberti) of tlie southern Rocky Mountain region, nearly or about a foot long, with a magnificent brush of still greater dimensions; the ears tiifted as in S. vulc/an's or Jnidsonins ; the color pure dark gray, white below, with a bright chestnut band on the back, and a black flank stripe. This is often melanistic ; but even when jet black, as often happens, may usually be recognized by the jiencilled ears. Yet another and very remarkable VOL. V. — 9 130 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. gray squirrel is tlie S. fossor of California, of large size, pure dark gray above, and pure white below, with a beautiful silver-black taU. The greater portion of the United States, east of the Plains, harbors very large squirrels, known as " Fox " or " Cat." The size is usually about twelve inches in length of head and body, which is about equalled by that of the tail ; but the color is wholly indeterminate. These squirrels, however, are generally distinguished by their reddishness, especially on the under-parts, where all the foregoing are usually white; and this ranges, through various dusky stages, to jet black. Three varieties of this species may be recognized. The Black Squiri-el of the South Atlantic and Gulf States {S. niger) is distinguished by its maximum size, which is about thirteen inches, and the fact that the iiose and ears are always snowy-white. Another variety is the com- mon Fox Squirrel of the Middle States, from New England to Virgmia {S. cinereus). This runs through all the colors of the last-named, but when black never has the white nose and ears of the other. This would, of course, distinguish it from the last-named, but also prevent its ready discrimination from a perfectly melanistic specimen of S. caroli?iensis. It is longer, however, and seldom lacks some reddishness on the under- parts, where S. carolinensis is normally white. It also normally lacks the small upper premolar which 8. carolinensis usually retains. Finally, the Western Fox-squirrel, of the whole Mississippi valley {S. ludoviciamis), is more constantly and very strongly reddish, not only on the under-parts, but on the feet and ears, and in the bones ; it is seldom dusky, and perhaps never jet black. These remarks, cursory as they are, may serve for the recognition of any North American squirrel ; but it would take us far beyond our limits to notice those of other countries in like manner. Even in the summary way we have reviewed the great order Rodentia, currente calanio, we have seen that one type of structure has been carried into the most diver- sified details, fitting the various animals for their no less multifarious roles, and espe- cially conferring upon them every mode of locomotion, saving only that which a bird enjoys; and in the remaining members of the Sciuridse, as in all those of the family which is to come next, we find an extraordinary modification of structure, which confers upon its favored possessors the power of sailing through the air with the buoyancy of a parachute. The elegant and dainty little Assapan or Flj-ing-squirrel of Ameinca {Sciuropterus volucella) possesses a fold of skin on each side of the body, between the fore and hind limbs, attached to both as far as the wrist and ankle. In the ordinary movements of the body, which differ in nowise from those of other squirrels, this membrane reefs in close to the body by its own elasticity ; but it is put upon the stretch wlien the limbs are stiffly extended, greatly increasing the surface of the body. Bounding lightly into the air from the swaying summit of a tall tree, spreading its " wings " for a flying leap of marvellous extent, with no net set to catch it in case of accident, this most daring of trapezists glides smoothly and swiftly on an inclined air-plane for thirty, forty, even fifty yards ; when a movement of the rudder-like tail guides the body upward for an instant, with half a somersault, and the creature settles as light as a feather upon bough or trunk of the tree for which it set sail ; then it scampers up to the top, and is ready to repeat the fun. This aerial sftort is indulged chiefly in the dusk of the even- ing; and, in places where flying-squirrels are abundant, a dozen or more may some- times be seen enjoying themselves together, gliding noiselessly through the gathering shades, like disembodied spirits. But if we examine one closely, we shall find it to be Pteromys iiclaurista, taguan. ^ ^-'^^fys^ RODENTIA. 131 a very substantial little creature, not in the least like a sjaook, but cosy and comforta- ble, and inclined to be very friendly as soon as its natural fear of man subsides. It is about six inches long, the tail nearly as much more, flattened like an ordinary squir- rel's, but much more copiously hairy, and so more compact ; the fur slate-gray, ovei- laid with mouse-brown on the upper-ijarts, whitish below, and exceedingly fine, soft and silky, like a cliinchilla's ; tlie eyes large and expressive. These little creatures make amusing and engaging pets, as might be supposed. We have but one sjjecies in Amer- ica, S. volucella, which ranges from portions of British America to Guatemala, and entirely across the Continent. In this wide range, it runs into several geographical races, distinguishable chiefly by size, but to some extent by color also. Their domestic economy is the same as that of ordinary squirrels; they live in nests, either placed in Fig. 70. — Sciuropterus voluctlla, liying squirrel. the holes of trees, or more artfully constructed of leaves and twigs made into a large ball, and hung in a forking of the branches. These small flat-tailed Flying-squirrels, of which the Palatouche of the Old World (S. volans) is another example, were formerly called Pteromys. But this generic name should be restricted to the larger Asiatic and Indian species, which have cylin- dric tails. These are chiefly nocturnal, like the Sciuropteri; and this is the principal distinction in habits between flying-squirrels and other members of the family. The Taguan {Pteromys jxtcmrista), for example, is the largest of the Sciurid«, being some two feet in length, with the bushy tail nearly as long. Numerous other species of the same genus are described. Tlje curious creatures known as Scale-tailed Squirrels, which form the family Axom- ALURiD^, may be described as flying-squirrels with climbing-irons; — the under-side of the tail being furnished for some distance from the root with a series of large homy scales, which, when pressed against the trunk of a tree, may subserve the same purpose 132 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. as those instruments with which a man chnibs up a telegrajili pole to set the wires. The parachute is similar to that of the true flying-squirrels, but is attached to the fore limb at the elbow, instead of the wrist, and is therefore less extensive. There is some resemblance to the genus GaleopUhecus (of the Insectivora), but the long hairy tail is nearly free from the intermembral membrane. The back-teeth are |, there being no small anterior upper premolar. Post-orbital process are deficient, and there are some other cranial characters, among them the large size of the ante-orbital foramen, which Fig. 71. — Anomalurus. recalls a hystricine type. There are sixteen dorsal vertebraj, and as many ribs, three or four more than in the Sciu7-idw, and some other peculiar internal arrangements ; but the technical characters, no less than the general aspect of the scale-tails, are unmis- takably sciurine, while their habits, as far as these are known, appear to correspond. Several species are described, all from the West Coast of Africa, as Anomalurus fra- seri from the Island of Fernando Po, and A. fulgens from the Gaboon. The latter is about fourteen inches long, with the tail half as much more, and is of a brioht reddish color. Some of the extinct relatives of the Sciuridaj have been noted already in speaking RODENTIA. 133 of the fossils related to the Castorida?. But a considerable number 3f true Sciuridte, belonging to genera now Ii\ iiig, have been found fossil, carrying the actual family- history to tlie upper eocene ; while several genera believed to be of Sciuridffi, yet dis- tinct from any which have survived till to-day, have been described. Such are Plesi- arctoinys and Pseudosciurus of the upper eocene of Europe ; with Scvuravits, Para- }tii/s, JleHscomys, JlL/soj^s, Colonomi/s, Taxynujs, and I'lllomys, from the Tertiary formations of Western Xorth America. But we have reached the end of the chain of rodent beings of the earth, the ■water, and almost of the air ; a cycle of mammalian life which circumscribes extraor- dinary diversity of form and function, revolving about a single central point of organization, namely : adze-like teeth to gnaw wood with. The number of individuals which make a living in this way in a world of Malthusian strife is simply incalcu- lable— jjossibly there are more rodents than all other quadrupeds put together. They are necessarily small animals ; were they as large as hoofed herbivorous quadrupeds, the earth W'ould not sustain such myriads. Yet they have one obvious part to play, in common with the great Pecora and other ungulates, — that of turning grass into flesh, in order that carnivorous Goths and Vandals may subsist also, and in their turn proclaim, " All flesh is grass " Elliott Coues. Showt'I or Sewellel. 134 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. Ordee III. — INSECTIVORA. Certain small mammals, with carnivorous tendencies, but whose inferior size compels them to resort chiefly to invertebrates, and especially insects, for prey, have been, on that account, designated as Insectivora. Inasmuch as they differ considerably in the development of the incisor teeth, they were distributed by Linnaeus among several orders. Subsequent naturalists recognized their similarity in spite of such differences, and Cuvier, in 1816, combined them in a group, or "family," of his " Carnassiers," which he named " Insectivores." This group was later raised to independent rank, and has lono- been known as the order of Insectivores, or, as Latinized, Insectivora. It embraces the animals popularly known as shrews, or shrew-mice, moles, and hedge- hogs, and others related to them found in warmer regions. But, in addition to the forms formerly and universally recognized as insectivores, recent naturalists have referred to the order the colugo ( Galeopithecus), originally considered to be related to the lemurs, accepting, in this respect, the long-ignored opinion of the brother of the great naturalist, Frederic Cuvier. The various types of Insectivora vary so much in external characteristics that it is only possible to give general characters to the order. The following definition, which for exactness and conciseness is necessarily couched in technical language, is sufficiently exclusive as well as inclusive. Fig. 73. — Skeleton of Ennaceus europeus. Placentiferous mammals, with a brain whose cerebrum is small and unilobate (the sylvian fissure being obsolete, and the posterior lobe undeveloped), leaving exposed behind much of the cerebellum, and in front much of the olfactory lobes ; with the anterior as well as posterior members primarily adaped for walking, the carpal bones of the proximal as well as distal series, and the metacarpal as well as phalangeal bones being normally differentiated and developed ; the ulna and radius more or less distinct ; the hind limbs normally related to the pelvis, and their elements to each other, and without a "calcar"; with the teeth encased in enamel, of three kinds (molars, canines, and incisors), and with first and second sets ; the lower jaw with well-defined condyles received in special glenoid sockets, and with the placenta deciduate and discoidal. INSECTIVORA. 135 These characters, as a whole, are jjeculiar to the order Insectivora, although most are shared with one or another of the related orders. But the limbs distinguish the tj-pe from the bats, although they are subject to much secondary modification. The colugos are even ada|)ted for flight, but their fore limbs, nevertheless, terminate in true feet, and are not specialized for the sujjport of a flying membrane like that of the bats. The enamelled and diversiform teeth, embracing both nulk and permanent sets, distinguish them from the edentates. The teeth also, as well as the condyles of the jaws, separate them from the rodents. Finally, the brain and placenta contrast with those of the carnivores, and are reinforced by various other characteristics which prove that, although analogous to each other, they are but distantly related. In the treatment of this order the correctness of the classification that has received the general approbation of special students of the group for some years past will be assumed, and we, therefore, at once commence with an exposition of the several tj'pes, commencing with the forms that appear to be the most generalized, or nearest to the 2:)rimitive Insectivora. It is obvious that the various insectivorous groups are resolvable into two primary sections, or sub-orders, which contrast with each other in many notable ways. The two sub-orders in question are the typical Insectivora, or Bestise, and the colugos, or Dermopteras. The former are ordinary quadrupeds as to style of j)rogression, while the latter are modified for flight for short distances. Sub-Okder I. — Bestir. The quadrupedal, or non-flying Insectivora have the limbs fitted for the normal mammalian mode of progression by walking. The limbs are therefore, as usual, mod- erate in length, robust, and destitute, for the most part, of any investing membrane; the lower jaw has its condyles transverse, or inclined inwards, at least not extended outwards; the incisor teeth of the lower jaw are conical (not pectinated), and more or less like those of the upper jaw, the latter, as well as the anterior molars of both jaws, being more or less conical, and crowned with single-lobed summits. But the animals thus agreeing differ greatly in supei-ficial appearance, as well as in details of structure. Some, for instance, are covered with robust spines, which bristle all over the body, while others have the finest and softest fur; others, again, have barrel-shaped bodies, minute eyes, and wide and sharply-clawed fore feet, emi- nently fitted for digging ; others are mouse-like in form, most at home while running along the ground ; and others, still, are squirrel-like, and affect the trees. It might quite naturally be thought that the forms thus specialized would be most nearly related to each other, and would, in fact, form natural groups ; that is, all the spiny species would be the most like each other, the mole-like forms in their tm-n alike, etc. The older naturalists, indeed, assumed that such was the case, and called all the insectivores armed with spines Erinaceids, the digging, barrel-shaped ones Talpidoe, and the mouse- like forms Soricidffi, or by names to that effect. "When, however, the structure of the various animals became better known it was recognized that frequently the external characters were not only no sure guides to their true relationships, but that they were frequently very misleading, and at length zoologists have concluded to ignore such superficial features as primary characters, and to subordinate them to others that are less adaptive. The best index to the real affinities was then discovered to be the structure of the molar teeth, or at least of the hinder ones. All the Insectivora of the 136 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. northern hemisphere, or rather the temperate portions, liave oblong molars with two V-shaped (W) ridges, while certain trojiical forms ha^-e transverse molars (that is, they are very short in the line of the jaws), surmounted with hut one V-shaped ridge. Those with two V-shaped ridges are called Dilambdodonta (from the Greek (lis, double, the letter A, lambda, and odous, odorUa, teeth), and the others, with one V-shaped ridge, are conversely named Zalambdodonta (from the Greek za, signifying em2>hatic- ally, the letter ^, and odous, odontu). The insectivores with the zalambdodont molars are the most primitive, or at least are generally so considered, and will, therefore, first demand attention. The representa- tives of this grouj^ are divisible into several families. The type which embodies in the simplest condition the zalambdodont dentition is the family of Cheysochloeid^, whose species are known j^opularly as golden moles, on account of the peculiar tint of the fur. But although the teeth are so simple, the organization otherwise is not indicative of inferiority, and, in fact, the type exhibits, in some respects, a high degree of specialization. As is suggested by the common name, the Chrysochloridae are much like the moles of the northern heinisjihere in ajjpearance, but in details of structure are very different. The head is conical, with covered eyes and without external ears, or rather ear conchs ; the legs are short, and the anterior pushed inwards, and the fore feet are fitted for digging, but contracted, and with the middle claw disproportionately enlarged ; the skull is conical, not constricted between the orbits, and has well-developed zygomatic arches ; the teeth are 36 or 40 in number (i. |-, c. \, pm, §, m. §:5 on each side), and the molars very contracted, and witli simple V-shaped crowns ; the collar-bones are elongated, as are also the liumeri, and the tibia and fibula are united. In their habits and mode of life, as in appearance, the Chrysochlorids are the African analogues of the moles, and, like them, excavate extensive tunnels in the ground, wherein they seek their wonny prey. Their adaptation for an analogous life, however, is effected by quite a different modification of structure. "In order to admit of fossorial life, action, and progression in a confined space," says Dr. Dobson, the fore limbs "must be so placed that they project as little as possible beyond the sides of the body, while the normal length of the fore-arms is ]ireserved, and the leverage of the mnscles remains unaffected. This is effected in the true moles (1) by change in the position of the limbs caused by anterior elongation of the manuhrium stemi, and carrying with it the clavicles, and (2) by shortening of the clavicles, which is here carried out to the greatest extent known, the limbs being thus brought opposite the narrowest part of the body, and, as it were, articulated with tlie sternum, from which the small quadrate clavicles alone sejiarate them. In the golden moles, however, the manuhrium stemi is not anteriorly elongated, neither are the clavicles shortened ; but this is made up for by a deep hollowing out on either side of tlie antero-Iateral walls of the thorax, the ribs in these parts and the sternum being convex inwards, the long clavicles have their distal extremities pushed forwards, and the concavities on the sides and inferior surface of the thorax lodge the thick, muscular arms." At least five species of the Chrysochloridre are known, and all inhabit Soutliern Africa. They are kept together in a single genus, Chrysochloris, by Dr. Dobson, but rejiresent three quite distinct sections ; the type, and oldest known species, C. aurea, is isolated in one, distinguished by 40 teeth, a vesicular projection in the temporal fossa, and moderate zygomatic processes; two others {C. villosa and C. trevalyani) INSECTIVORA. 137 constitute another ( Chrysos2yalax), having also 40 teeth, but no vesicular projections, and especially characterized by the upraised zygomatic processes covering the sides of the skull like a high collar or hood ; and two others form the third (Ambli/somus), recognizable by the development of only 36 teeth. Centetid.e is the family name of insectivores peculiar to the INIalagasy region, — the island of Madagascar, etc. They have what has been called " a squat form," fore- feet fitted for running, a very short tail, and well-developed spines interspersed in the fur. The skull is sub-cj'lindrieal, and not afipreciably constricted behind the orbits, the lachrymal foramen opens close to the imier margin of the orbit, there is no sub- FiG, 74. — Cenfetes ecaiidatus, tanrec, two-fifths natural size. optic foramen, and the squamosal bones are expanded outwards and backwards ; the teeth are variable (/. \,l)m- ilj, m- 1), but the molars of the upper jaw form triangular prisms, with onh- single internal principal cusps developed, while the lower molars have very small posterior cuspidate ledges. The sca]>ula has an obtuse meta- cromion process, clavicles are developed, and the tiliia and fibula are entirely distinct from each other. The Centetidffi are naturally peculiar to Madagascar and the ueigliboring dependent islands, and are rei^resented by four species, illustrating three genera, usually known as Ceutefes, Hemicentetes, and Ericulus. The largest species is Centetes ecaudatus, or the Tanrec. Its head and body measure nearly a foot (eleven inches) in length. It is now found in the islands of Bourbon and Mauritius, as well as Madagascar, but has been introduced into the former by man. Its favorite food consists of earthworms. It is extremely prolific, or rather multiparous, and has been claimed to be the most so 138 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. of all mammals ; according to Dr. Dobson " as many as twenty-one young are said to have been brought forth at a birth ; and in the uterus of a pregnant female it was found that while twelve fojtuses were developed, fifteen ova had been impregnated." Closely related to the Centetids are some small, recently discovered mammals, inhabiting Madagascar. They have even been referred to that family by Dr. Dobson, and such may be their proper place : but it seems best for the present to keep them separate, as they differ much in physiognomy and considerably in structural characters. They may therefore be considered as the rej^resentatives of two families, — the Oryzo- ryctids and Geogalids. The Oryzoeyctid^ are like moles or shrews in appearance, have more or less elongated tails, and the fur is soft and dense, and without any harsh or spine-like hairs ; the skull and dentition do not ai)pear to diifer very materially from the corresponding parts of the Centetids ; the tibia and fibula are united together. Two generic types are known, Oryzoryctes and Microgule. The Oryzoryctes hova is a mole-like animal, and is said to burrow in the rice-fields of Madagascar, and to be quite destructive to the crops. It is a small form, the head and body together measuring about three and a half inches, and the tail one and three quarters. The Microyale lonyicaudata is noteworthy as having a tail consisting of more nu- merous vertebriB (forty-seven) than has any other mammal, although it scarcely sur- passes, and sometimes does not equal, in this respect, the long-tailed manis, for that species has as many as forty-six caudal vertebne. A congener of this species, the Mi- croyale cowani, has a very much shorter tail. Both kinds occur in the same part of Madagascar, are mouse-like or shrew-like in appearance, and about the size 'of ordinary shrews. The Geogalids are essentially similar to the 3Iicrogales in appearance, and have also a soft fur ; the skull is somewhat intermediate in characters between those of 3Ii- croyale and Potamoyale, having the general form of the former, but with the peculiar shape of the palate and tooth-rows of the latter ; the teeth, in the only known form, are reduced in number («. |, c. |, pm. f , m. J) ; the molars have V-shaped cusps, with notched outer margins and an internal basal process as in Oryzoryctes and JSHcroyale, but i)rogressively increasing in transverse diameter, from before, backwards, as in Pota- mogale. The tibia and fibula are distinct. Such are the characters assigned to Geogale l)y Dr. Dobson. The single known species, Geogale aurita, is about the size of a shrew, and inhabits the western portion of Madagascar. Nothing is known about its habits. SoLENODONTiD^ is the family name of two species of insectivorous mammals that inhabit tiie islands of Cuba and Hayti, one species being peculiar to and confined to each island. These are related not distantly to the Malagasy Centetids, and were long regarded as belonging to the same family ; but Dr. Dobson has considered the characteristics which differentiated them from the Centetids as suflicient to warrant their separation under a distinct family title. For insectivores, they are of large size, — about the size of a very large rat, — and they have a somewhat similar form, but the hind limbs ai-e much longer, the feet more plantigrade, and the nose is produced into a long snout. No spines are developed in the haii-, and the fur is quite soft. The INSECTIVORA. I39 skull is slightly constricted beliincl the orbits ; the lachrymal foramen nearly the same as in the Centetids ; the squamosal bones are expanded outwards and forwards ; the teeth are developed as tliree incisors in each jaw, three pre-molars, and three molars. The molars are essentially like those of the Centetids, and the scapula and clavicles are also similar to those bones in that family ; the tibia and fibula are distinct. The organs of generation are, however, markedly distinct from those of the Madagascarene animals, and there are also some important muscular jjeculiarities. The genus Solenodon is the only known form of this family now existing, and there are no recognized extinct forms which can be closely associated with it. It is entirely confined to the two large islands Cuba and Hayti, in each of which it has a special representative, and these are chiefly limited to the high, or mountainous parts of the respective islands. The Haytian species, Solenodon paradoxus, was known as early as 1833, but the Cuban species, Solenodon cubanus, not until thirty years after (1863 or 1864). Little is positively known of the habits of either of the species. They are said, however, to attack the poultry of the plantations, and to make themselves known by a peculiar cry, which is described as being very loud and piercing. When pursued they are quite apt to run the head into any hole which they may find in their flight, and to therein conceal it, ostrich-like, leaving tlie rest of the body exposed, and thinking themselves thus secure. They manifest a psychological characteristic, in common with their relations, the shrews and moles, for it has been noted of an individual kept in confinement, that it was subject to excessively violent fits of rage when irritated. The Haytian animal is known in its country as the Agouta, and the Cuban as the Almiqui. The latter attains a total length of about nineteen inches, of which the head and body would measure eleven, and the tail, eight, while a somewhat larger size has been attributed to the Haytian species. The two, however, probably differ little, if any, in average size. A peculiar and very distinct family, Potamogalid^, contains the largest of living insectivores, an inhabitant of Africa, seeking its food and living almost all the time in the water, — the Potamogale velox. It is eminently adapted for aquatic life and progression in the streams. The form is elong.ated and graduated into the tail, which is so very large and compressed that there is absolutely no noteworthy constriction marking the limits between it and the trunk. The head is produced forwards, in front of the eyes, into a robust snout. The legs are very small, especially the fore ones, but the posterior are larger; a web is developed between the toes of the hind feet, and the outer side of the walking surface is peculiarly flattened, the skin being drawn downwards, forming a thin lobe along the side of the foot. The toes are not webbed, but the second and third are united together for the whole length of the first joints ; the tliree middle toes are about equal, the fourth is slightly longer ; the extremities of the claws of the great toe and the outer toe reach to the basal joints of the next. The skull is cylindrical, and has no lachry- mal foramen but has a sub-optic one ; the teeth are forty in numlier («'. §, c. |, pm. |, m. §). Each upper molar jiresents a completely divided triangular prism, two prin- cipal internal cusps being developed, and the lower molars have quite large posterior ledges or areas. The shoulder bone has no metacromion process, and the collar bones are entirely wanting; the tibia and fibula are anchylosed together at the distal extremities. 140 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. Only one species of this singular type is known, and it is quite restricted in its distribution, for it has been found only in the Cameroon district, Old Calabar, and the Gaboon basin of equatorial Africa. Little is known of its habits, but, according to Du Chaillu, "it is found along the water-courses and limpid and clear streams, where fish are abundant, liiding under rocks, lying in wait for fish. It swims through the water with a rapidity that astonished nie ; before the fish has time to move it is caught." But, according to Dr. Dobson, that it feeds on fish cannot be at present confirmed or disproved, as no specimens appear to have been liitherto obtained in which the stomach and its contents have been found available for observation. " Such a diet would be wholly exceptional among Insectivora," and Dr. Dobson thinks it "more than probable that Crustacea and water-beetles contriliute largely, as in other species, to its daily fare." We must remember, however, that the animal is adapted for ra])id and efficient progress in the water, and it would not be surjjrising if its diet was also equally modified. Fig. 75. — Solenodon cubanus, aliuiqui, one-third natural size. ITnrelialile as Mr. Du Chaillu's statements often are, it is more than possible that in this instance he was correct. That the animal swims through the water as described above, Dr. Dobson well adds, "is quite evident from the form of its immense, laterally flattened, fish-like tail, Avhich, moreover, as in many fishes, is doubtless the sole organ of propulsion, the short, unwebbed fore and hind limbs being folded on the sides and inferior surface of the body, as in a newt when swimming." The body of Potamogale velox is a foot long, and the tail nearly eleven inches. Admitting all the families now enumerated as such, there are six of the zalamb- dodont series — Chrysochloridre, Solenodontidpe, Centetidoe, Oryzoryctidte, Geogalidffi, and Potamogalida\ The first is so isolated as to represent a peculiar " super-family," — Chrvsochloroidea, — while all the others belong to i.nother, the Centetoidea. The remaining types of walking Insectivora belong to the dilaml)dodont series, and may be most conveniently considered in the following order : — In the islands of the Eastern Archipelago ai-e found certain small mammals which INSECTIVORA. 141 chiefly affect the trees, and in sui^erficial aspect mucli resemble the squirrels, assuming similar attitudes, and coursing up and down the branches as they do. Like as they are, however, they have no relation to the true squirrels, but are insectivores modified for an arboreal life. Unlike most other insectivores they are especially diurnal animals, seeking their food and pleasure by daylight instead of in the night. The name which these animals bear in Sumatra is Tupai, and this they have in common with true squirrels, which are likewise found in the island, and with which they are confounded by the Malays. The common aboriginal name has been adopted, with a slight modification, as the scientific, and the family is called Tupaiidje. In brief the Tupaiidae are dilambdodont insectivores of a squirrel-like aspect, with very soft and fine fur, with the intestinal canal provided with a large ctecum, the tibia and fibula separate, the metatarsus moderate (little or no longer than the tarsus), the skull transversely convex above, the orbit more or less encircled by bone ; with no sub-optic foramen ; with the alisphenoid canal develojied, the malar jierforate, the lachrymal foramen at the margin outside of orbit, and thirty-eight teeth {i. §; c. \; ];>in. f; m. f). The family of Tupaiidre has two well-defined genera, Tupaia and Ptilocercus. Tupaia contains those which especially resemble the squirrel, from wliich, however, they are at once distinguished externally by the elongated, conical snout. These have a tail distichous like the squirrels. Ptilocercus in most respects differs little from Tiipaia, but has a very peculiar tail ; it is long, with the basal portion mostly naked, or rather covered with scales, and having only short hairs, while the terminal third has long hairs, distichous or diverging in opposite directions from the sides, thus resembling an arrow with its two wings. The proper diet of the Tupaiids is small insects, but they are to some extent frugivorous, and in confinement they may be fed, according to Cantor, exclusively on either insects or fruit, although preference is manifested for insects. Their voice is a short, peculiar, tremulous, wliistling sound, often to be heard in calls and answers, and tliis they emit, for instance, on the appearance of food, as well as other pleasurable emotions, while their displeasure is vented in shrill, protracted cries. Like the squirrels, their disposition is very restless, and their great agility enables them to perform the most extraordinary bounds in all directions. In such exercise they spend the day until night sends them to sleep in their rudely constructed lairs in the highest branches of the trees. At times they will sit on their haunches, holding their food between the forelegs, and after feeding they smooth the head and face with both forepaws, and lick their lips and palms. In this respect, as well as others, it will be seen they resemble the squirrels, and they carry out this likeness in captivity. When placed in a cage, according to the same observer, "the tupaia will continue for liours vaulting from below, back downwards, poise itself for an instant, continuing back downwards under the horizontal roof, and regain the point of starting, and thus describe a circle, the diameter of which may be three or four times the length of the animal, in far sliorter time than is required for the description." The species of Tupaia are eleven in number, and are mostly inhabitants of the Indo-lNIoluecan Archipelago ; but several also occur on the mainland in India, and even extend into China. Tlie most common and widely distributed are the T. ferruginea and T. javanica. The former is about sixteen inches long and tlie latter thirteen, the tail in each forming about half the length. Only one s]iecies of Ptilocercus is known, the P. lowi, and that is confined to the island of Borneo. Its head and trunk arc five or six inches long, and the tail somewhat longer. 142 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. In Africa there live certain peculiar, shrew-lilce animals whose hind limbs are developed out of proiwrtion to the fore, fitting theiu for jum])ing. They have been consequently called MACEOSCELiDiDJi (which practically means the long-thighed animals), and jumping shrews. The typical species {Macroscelides typicus) has also been called " elephant shrew," not on account of its size, but in allusion to the elongated nose ; and for the same reason the French call an allied species of Algeria (Ifacros- celides rozeti) '■'■Rat d, trompeT These animals have an intestinal canal provided with a large crecum. The body is rat^like, and the pelage soft ; the tibia and fibula are united below, the metatarsus is very elongated (much exceeding the tarsus) ; the skull is transversely concave above, the orbits are open behind and not encircled by bone, and a sub-optic foramen is develojjed, but there is no alisphenoid canal, and post-orbital processes are also wanting ; the malar is imperforate, the lachrymal foramen Fig. 76. — Macroscelides typicus, elephant shrew, one-half natural size. is within the margin of the orbit ; three incisor teeth are developed above and below on each side, and there are five toes to each of the fore-feet at least. Of tills family there are two generic types — Macroscelides and Petrodromus — confined to the African continent, but therein the former is quite generally distributed. As indicated by the length of their hind-limbs, they chiefly progress by jumps, and are very active. The species of Macroscelides live by preference on the plains, and are diurnal in their habits. Their insect prey is chiefly hunted for in the grass and bushes of their favorite resorts. They make burrows in the ground, and when alarmed run immedi- ately thereto for safety. The hind-feet have each five toes, but tlie first is quite short. The species of Petrodromus, on the other hand, justify their name (rock-runner) by their habitat, the rocky hills being their favorite home. The hind-feet have only four toes each. Nine species of Macroscelides and one of Petrodromus have been described. The longest known representative of the former is the M. trjpus, introduced into zoology in 1829 from the Cape of Good Hope, and at the opposite extreme of the INSECTIVORA. 143 continent another quite similar species, the 31. rozeti, represents it. Both of these are nearly of the same size, — about eight inches long, of which the tail constitutes some three or four inches. The only recognized species of the latter — F. tetradactylus was described by Peters, in 1846, from specimens obtained in Mozambique. It is the largest species of the family. The " dark continent " has another peculiar type apparently of family value, but closely related to the Macroscelididae. It is, however, limited to a single genus of about four species. The name, Rhynchocyonid^, has been conferred on it on account of the enlarged canine teeth, combined with the elongated snout. The intestinal canal has a long CEecum ; the general appearance is like that of a rat ; the fur is soft ; the tibia and fibula are united, and the skull in general is developed as in the Macroscelidae, but it is broad between the orbits, and has distinct post-orbital processes ; the infra-orbital canal is very long, the incisor teeth are reduced in number (^- or %) in the upper jaw, and the toes of the fore as well as hind-feet are only four in number. The species of Bhynchoci/on, so far as known, are confined to Eastern Africa, the oldest species, R. cirnei, having been obtained in Mozambique (Boror), the E. petersi in Zanzibar, M. macrurus by the River Rovuma, and JR. chrysopygus by the River Mombaya; the last two were only described in 1881, and all are rare in collections. The best known, H. cirnei, has a head and body aggregating eight inches in length, and a rat-like tail little shorter. It is s.aid to live in holes in the ground, and subsists on insects. It is a strictly nocturnal animal. This much is known, but what pecu- liarities of alimentation and habits are the co-ordinates of the structural characteristics are entirely unknown. The three preceding families, in contrast with others, are rather closely related to each other, and are consequently combined as a super-family of dilambdodont insect- ivores under the designation of Tupaioidea. Another super-family, Erinaceoidea, appears to be demanded for the reception of the hedge-hogs, the genera of which form likewise the family of Erinaceid^. These have no cagcum to the intestinal canal. The molar teeth and the premolars in j^art {m. 2, m. \,pm. 4, and jowi. 3) are quadricuspid with the antero-internal cusp higher than the postero-internal ; the true molars (m. 2, m. 1) have the postero-external cusp connected by a ridge with the one between the antero-internal and the postero-internal cusps at the re-entering angle with the latter. The cranium is oblong-oval, and broadest between the roots of the zygo- mata ; the foramen magnum is triangular, the occipital condyles very divergent, and the paroccipital and mastoid processes distinct. The fur is more or less harsh or spiny, but the development of spines is of no special importance, and some of the forms have no true spines. The common hedgehog of Europe is the type of this family, and also the type around which chister a number of species which together form the sub-family Erinaceinfe. The Erinaceinas, or true hedgehogs, have a rudimentary tail, and robust spines are developed in the j^elage. The cranium is comparatively broad, scarcely constricted between the orbits, and has a short muzzle. There are only three incisors above and two below, and three premolars above and Xwo below on each side, and the hindmost molars and the canines are small. As many as nineteen species of hedgehogs are recognized by Dr. Dolison from different portions of the regions over which the family is distributed, and these have 144 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAM.UALS. been by some natui'alists divided into two or tliree genera; they are, however, very much alike in anatomical features. There is not very much difference in size between the species, but the largest is the common animal of Eurojje, — Erinaceus europeus., — which reaches the dimensions of a large rat. This species is found, according to Dobson, in almost the entire Eur-Asiatic region, extending from Ireland to Eastern China, and from the Scandinavian Peninsula and Russia to Southern Italy, Asia Minor, and Palestine, and at heights varying from six thousand feet, in the Aljss, to eight thousand in the Caucasus. It is somewhat abundant in Great Britain, in suitable localities, where there is thick cover, though less common towards the north. It was Fig. 77. — Erinaceus europeus, Europeau hedgehog, one-third natural size. formerly asserted not to be found in Ireland, but this is incorrect. However, it is not so common as in England. It is a lover of a moist and humid climate, and as soon as rain sets in may be seen, but in very hot and dry weather it conceals itself in its burrow. The female is quite prolific, and produces from four to eight young in the months of July and August, but two to four is a more common number. She may have two litters in a year, one about May or June, and another in October or Novem- ber. The period of gestation is about a month. The young are able to care for themselves as soon as they are born, but the spines are then undo\-elopcd, being small, colorless hairs. These, however, soon become hard, and quickly assume the character familiar in the adult, the young attaining their full size in about a year. The development of the spines is correlated with some interesting muscular pecu- liarities, and the efficiency of this provision for the safety of the animal has been well INSECTIVORA. 145 described by Bell. Although " deprived by its structure of all means of attacking its enemies, of defending itself by force, or of seeking safety in flight, this harmless animal is yet endowed with a safeguard more secure and effectual than the teeth and claws of the wildcat, or the fleetness of the hare. Its close covering of hard spines, — which are hard without brittleness, sufficiently elastic to bear great violence without breaking, and fixed with astonishing firmness in the tough, leathery skin, — forms not only a solid shield to protect it from tlie effect of blows and falls, but a shirt of prickly mail sufficiently shai-p and annoying to deter all but a few thoroughbred dogs from ventur- ing to attack it. Immediately that it is touched, or that it sees danger approaching, it rolls itself up into a compact, round ball, by the contraction of the powerful muscles which cover the body immediately under the skin, and presents this impenetrable panoply, beset by innumerable spines standing out in every direction ; the more it is irritated or alarmed, the more firmly it contracts, and the more strongly and stifliy the spines are set ; and its a])]iearance at such times did not escape the eyes of Shakspeare, and was not forgotten when he put the following in tlie mouth of Caliban : — ' like hedgehogs which Lie tumbling in my barefoot way, and mount Their pricks at my footfall.' " The strength and elasticity of this covering is such tliat we have repeatedly seen a domesticated hedgehog run towards the jDrecipitous wall of an area, and, without hesitation, withotit a moment's pause of preparation, throw itself off; and contract- ing at the same instant into a ball, in which condition it i-eached the ground from a height of twelve or fourteen feet ; after a few moments it would unfold itself and run off unhurt." Another most interesting feature of the economy of the European species at least is its ability to store up in its tissues a sufficiency of fat to draw upon for support during a winter's rest, while it remains in concealment, alike free fi'om the pangs of hunger and cold, as well as from the dangers incident to hunting in winter. Bell believes that " the liibcrnation of the hedgehog is, perhaps, as complete as that of any animal inliabiting England ; and much more so than that of many of the Rodentia whicli retire, indeed, to winter retreats, but awaken at intervals, to eat of their treas- ured hoard of nuts or grain, when called into temporary life by .a day of unwonted mildness. The hedgehog, on the contrary, lays up no store for the winter, but retires to its warm, soft nest of moss and leaves, and, rolling itself up into a compact ball, passes the dreary season in a state of dreamless slumber, undisturbed by the violence of the tempest, and only rendered still more j-n'ofoundly torpid by the bitterest frost. Its usual retreats are in the hollows of trees which are decayed at the bottom of the trunk ; underneath its base, where the earth has been washed away from under the huge, naked roots ; in holes of rocks ; on a dry bank in the bottom of a hedge-row ; or under the brush-wood in a coppice or wood. We have seen their nests often in the latter situation, and composed entirely of withered leaves, the inner ones being perforated by the creature's spines, so that when removed from the nest it was yet enveloped by leaves. Withered loaves appear to be the best material for the nest, and are generally chosen, as they are singularly effective in keeping out the wet. We have always failed to discover the place at which the animal has entered this retreat, the entrance being most carefully closed behind it." VOL. V. — 10 146 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. We are obliged to further borrow from Professor Bell. According to him, " the voice of the hedgehog is not often heard, but it is an odd sort of sound between a grunt and a low, pljjing squeak ; and Shakspeare, who has shown us by more than one allusion how much he knew of the habits of so obscure a creature as the mole, has o-iven us proof tliat he, too, was well acquainted with the voice of the hedgehog. We refer to the following in one of the witch-scenes in ' Macbeth ' : — ' Thrice and once the hedge-pig whined.' " The Gymnurinfe have a more or less elongated tail, and no decided spines are developed in the pelage, although the liairs may be harsh and even rigid ; the skull is comparatively narrow between the orbits, and the muzzle more or less elongated. There are six incisors in each jaw, and also four ])remolars on each side ; the last molars are well developed, and the canine teeth are enlarged. The best-known example of this group is the Bulau, Gymnura rafflesit. This has quite a different form from the hedgehog, and more resembles a rat in appearance. It is nn inhabitant of Sumatra, Borneo, and Malacca, etc. Very little is known about its habits, but it is certain that it has not the ability to roll itself up into a ball like the true hedgehogs. Its legs are quite short, and all its feet are five-toed and fur- nished with curved, pointed claws. It reaches a total length of about twenty-six inches, of which the tail constitutes less than half, or about twelve inches. Nearly related to the bulau is an animal which has been named Ilylomys suillus, but whicii has been by most naturalists associated with the Tupaiids, although by Dr. Dobson it is regarded simjjly as a species of Gymnura. It is an inhabitant of Northern India, and is much smaller than tlie bulau. By far the largest family of the insectivores — comprising over half of the living species — is that of the shrews, Soricid^, or, as they have been not inaptly called, shrew-mice; for externally they have much resemblance to mice, the only salient feature distinguishing them to the casual observer being the elongated snout. The pelage in all is soft and furry, the skull has posterior ridges well develoiied, the infra-orbital canal is a rather long sub-cylindrical tunnel, covered by a very broad osseous wall ; no zygomatic arch is developed ; the lower jaw has its ascending rami deflected outward, and there is a cavity at the bottom of each coronoid jirocess ; the sternum has a broad manubrium which is not carinated, the anterior members are more slender than the posterior, and the carpus is normal, having no sickle-shaped bone or os intermedium. The dentition is very similar in all ; the incisors are two ui each jaw {i. |, c. \, pin. fif, m. J) ; the upper incisors are curved and bear a i)ointed, spur-like cusp at their base ; the lower ones are horizontal and eidarged. Not only is the family the largest of the order, but it is also the most homogeneous of all those families which liave several genera ; for all the shrews are constructed on essentially the same plan, and differ only in matters of minute detail. They are also the most widely-distributed of the order, representatives being found in the Eur-Asiatic and American regions, and extending both to the north and southward, more than any other forms. But, though very uniform on the whole, the details of structure necessitate their differentiation into a number of genera, which may be combined under three sections: (1) tlie t^'pical Sorices, of which the two genera, Sorex and Blarina, both occur in North America ; (2) the Crocidura; with one widely-distributed genus common to the old world (Crocidnra), and two Asiatic (Diplomesodon and INSECTIVORA. 147 Anurosorex) ; and (3) the Crossopi, also with three genera, one American (]Veoso)'ex) and two old world forms (Crossojnts and Nectogale). The habits of shrews are known best as manifested in the Common Shrew of Europe {Sorex vulgaris). This chiefly lives in the coppice or woodland, in which situations, as well as in the open fields, whether cultivated or in jjasture, they seek their food. But they are not confined in their liabitat to such situations, as, with their congeners the water shrews, they are often met with in marshy and fen districts. They are not exclusively insectivorous, for they also feed u]iou worms and small molluscs, and they are probably only restricted by their size in their selection of food, for they will also devour meat in the shape of small birds and other anunals, and often their own kind. "If two shrews be confined in a box together a very short time elapses before the weaker is killed and partly devoured," It will be thus seen that Fig. 78. — Crocidura araneiis, house shrew, and Sorex vulgaris, common European shrew, natui'al size. they are very prone to combat, and jealous of each other's presence. On the other hand, the secretions which they emit are so offensive to some animals that although they may lie killed they are not devoured. The shrews are very prolific, the female generally having as many as five or seven young ones at a time ; they are mostly Ijorn in the spring. A nest is provided for them, " which consists of soft herbage, and is made in any hole or depression of the ground, or in a bank; it is covered over at the top, and is entered at the side," according to Bell. The English naturalists record that the common shrew at least is subject to an epi- demic, or a very general malady which jn-evails early in the autumn, the cause of which does not appear to be understood. " So many may be found at that season lying dead in footways, or on other bare ground near their haunts, as to have led to the belief among the country people that the shrews could not cross a jniblic way without in- curring instant death. We confess ourselves wholly unable to furnish any explanation," says Dr. Bell, "having failed to discover any cause of death. Amongst the many we 148 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. have ourselves picked up and examined liavc lieen individuals of both sexes and of all ages, as shown by the worn or imwoni condition of the teetli, and the more or less naked state of the tail." . The shrews have been, to an unusual extent for small animals, the subject of super- stition in Europe. One of these — the lethal penalty of crossing a road — has just been instanced ; liut this affects the animal alone, while the others reflect more upon its ])Owers of injury to man. It is lielieved to produce disease or affliction to any part of the body which it touches, as, for examjilc, lameness to the foot which it passes ovei-, but antidotes have likewise been imagined to such calamities. The chief one was the twig of a shrew-ash. " Now a shrew-ash," according to Gilbert White, the natural historian of Selborue, " is an ash whose twigs or branches, when applied to the limbs of cattle, will immediately relieve the pains which beasts suffer from the running of a shrew-mouse over the foot affected ; for it is supposed that the shrew-mouse is of so baneful and deleterious a nature that, whenever it moves over a beast, be it horse, coW) or sheep, the suffering animal is afflicted with cruel anguish, and threatened with the loss of the use of the limb. Against this accident, to which they were continually liable, our provident forefathers always kept a shrew-ash at hand, which, when once medicated, would maintain the virtue forever. A shrew-ash was made thus : Into the body of the tree a deep hole was bored with an auger, and a poor devoted shrew-mouse was thmst in alive, and plugged in, no doubt with several quaint incantations long since forgotten." According to Bell, "Another method of cure was to make the person or animal pass through the arch of a bramble, both ends of which were rooted and growing." Such superstitions, liowever, are gradually disappearing in England, and seem never to have secured a real foothold in the United States. The House Shrew, Crocidura araneus, is found in the countries lying between North Africa and Northern Russia and Siberia, but a])pears to be lacking in England, Holland, and Scandinavia. The Ciliated Shrew, C. stcavolens, which is found in all the countries bordering on the Mediterranean, is noticeable as being the smallest known mammal. As has been above indicated, there are three genera of American shrews, Sorex, BlariiHi, and N'eosorex. These may be recognized by the following marks : — Sorex has no cilia to the feet, the ears are well developed, and the tail is moder- ately long. Perhaps the most common species in the Eastern United States is the S.platy- rhiims or broad-nosed shrew ; others found in the same region are S. cooperi and S. forsteri. X\\ these have thirty-two teeth, and constitute the restricted group Sorex. Another species, S. hoi/i or t/iomj)soni, has thirty teeth, and represents the group 3£icrosorex ; and a third group, Kotiosorex, has been proposed for a shrew, S. crairfordi, found in New Mexico. Blarina, like Sorex, has ordinary feet, but the ears are very small and concealed in the fur, and the tail is very short. The typical species, called the Mole-shrew, £. brevicauda, is decidedly the most abundant of the farail}- in the Eastern States Sorej:pliiti/rhu>HS, broad-nosed slirew. Crocidura suaoeolens, ciliated shrew, natural size. Tupala tana, tupai, one-tliird natural size. INSECTIVORA. 149 generally; it has thirty-two teeth. Another smaller species, distinguished by the dcvolopment of only thirty teeth, is called B. cinerea, and has for that reason been set ajiart as the i-epresentative of a subgeneric group {Soriciscus) by Dr. Coues. Fig. 80. — Blarina brevicauda, mole shrew, natural size. Neosorex is the American representative of the Eur-Asiatic Crossopus, and has fimbriated or ciliated toes, the ears moderately developed, and the tail about as long as the head and body together. Two species are known, — the JV. joalustris of the eastern slope of the continent, extending from the Rocky Mountains to the coast, and the N'. navigator of the Pacific slope, and especially of Washington Territory and Fig. 81. — Crossopus fodiens, water shrew, natural size. Oregon. These are as aquatic in their habits as the native Shrew of Europe, as has been suggested by their names; The ]\Iarsh Shrew {K 2Mhistris) was observed by Professor Cope swimming in a lake in New Hampshire about forty feet from the bank, and Professor Verrill has directed especial attention to the valvular ears as well as fringed feet, as eminently fitting them for life in the water. 150 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. The Water Shrew of Europe, Crossopus fodiens, has the premolars J, and the feet and toes provided with rigid hairs. It is about three inches in length, the tail measur- ing about two more. It is of a dark brown color, inclining to black above and gray or white beneath. Like some others of the grouj), it burrows in the banks of streams and ponds, and is very aquatic in its habits. Intermediate between the shrews aiid moles, to a certain extent, but much more allied to the latter, are a few animals forming the family Myogalid^, the chief of which are known as the Desmans, or Myogala. In form they resemble rather the shrews, but differ, even in this respect, and some approach nearer the moles in appear- ance. The anterior feet are comparatively narrow, and not es]iecially fitted for digging, like those of the great burrowers. The skull has obsolete posterior ridges ; the kifra- FlG. 82. — Myogale moschata, desman, one-halt natural size. orbital canal is very large, and arched over only by a narrow osseous bar. The zygo- matic arch is very slender, and the lower jaw has erect ascending rami, and without cavities under the coronoid processes. The sternum has a manubrium of moderate size ; the scapula is provided with a metacromion process ; the clavicle is elongate, the humerus sub-cylindical, and the carpns has no sickle-shaped bone. The family embraces five known genera, of which the Eur-Asiatic region (including Europe and Northern Asia) has four, and the North American has only one. They are mostly small animals, but the type of the family, 3hjogale moschata, ranks among the largest of the ordei-. The s]>ecies just cited has a head and body aggregating nearly eight inches in length, and the tail is almost as much more. The two species of Myogale are both found in Europe, but ha^■e a remarkable restriction of range; the 31. moschata is now limited to Southeastern Russia and Western Asia. Its congener, 31. pi/renaica., is found only in the neighborhood of the Pyrenees INSECTIVORA. 151 mountains. But in a period immediately preceding tlie glacial epoch a species of Myo[/ale, identified with the 31. moschata, extended westward as far as England, its remains being found in the forest beds of that country. Both the living species are aquatic, and live in still waters, from which they make burrows, often extending as winding passages, to a considerable distance, in the direction of the surface, " towards which they always direct them, probably on account of the greater looseness of the surface soil, and the necessity of obtaining air for respiration. These burrowing habits have evidently been handed down by remote ancestors, more fossorial than natatorial in their organization." Their food, judging from the remains found in their stomachs, " consists chiefly of Avater-beetles, and lar\-;B of different kinds, and it is jirobable that Crustacea and other invertebrate aquatic species of animals also contribute to it." They have very elongated flexible snouts, almost reminding one of tlie elephant's trunk in appearance ; this is brought actively into play during the search for provisions. In the words of Dallas, " it is turned and twisted in various directions, touching the various bodies that come in the way, and is used to feel about for prey, which is seized and conveyed to the neighboring mouth after the same fashion as the trunk of an ele- phant." It is also said of the desman that the trunk is put into its mouth, and that it then utters a "cry like a duck; when irritated or threatened, it hisses and tries to bite." The name muskrat, which is one of the popular designations of tlie desman, is due to the singular development of glands above the tail, which is found only in that species, the Myogale pyrenaica having them at most in a rudimentary condition. " These glands are undoubtedly made up of aggregated sebaceous glands, as shown by their minute structure, their position and their secretion." The office of this secretion " appears to be protection to the aninuil, though, according to some writers, it occasion- ally falls a prey to pike and other carnivorous fishes, the flesh of which becomes tainted with the powerful penetrating odor. It is interesting to notice how the development of these glands appears to have resulted in a two-fold manner to the advantage of the species ; in the first place by affording a protective fluid, rendering the animal gener- ally unpalatable to carnivorous enemies, and, secondly, by leading to important modifi- cations in the tail, by wliich its depth is increased, and its form assimilated to that of newts and other truly acjuatic animals, so converting it into a powerful organ of pro- pulsion." The only other Myogalid that demands special notice is the single known species of the American fauna. This was formerly considered to be very nearly allied to, and even identical with, the Urotrichus talpoides of Japan, but is now isolated as a peculiar type, the JVeurotrickus gibbsii. This is at once recognizable among all the American animals, by the combination of mole and shrew characters, the number of teeth (*. §, c. J , 23ni. §, m. f on eacli side) and the conical upper incisors like those of a shrew. It has only been found in Western North America, and was originally obtained in Washington Territory. According to Mr. Lord, who found it on grassy prairies near the Fraser river, its "subterranean home is a large space or hole excavated like a small cave, and lined with bits of dry grass and leaves. From the central residence roads are tunnelled away, radiating from it like the sjiokes of a wheel. His tunnels are not like those of the mole ; he never throws up heaps or mounds of earth to get rid of the surplus material ; he digs as the mole, but makes open cuttings, at short intervals, about four or five inches long." The length of the animal is little over four inches, the head and body measuring two and a half and the tail one and si.'c-tenths inches. 152 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. The moles constitute a jDcculiar family named Talpid^, whicli is not only well distinguished by the form of the body in conjunction with that of the feet, but whose members are extremely" like each other in superficial appearance, although entirely unlike the shrews, to which they are nearly related in most respects. The different species, however, differ markedly from each other in dentition. But in all the body is Fig. 83. — Skeleton of Talpa europea. barrel-shaped, terminating in front in a produced snout, provided with wide digging paws, generally with a short tail, and with the pelage very dense and soft. The skull has no well-develo])ed posterior ridges. The infra-orbital canal is an extensive trans- verse aperture arched over by a very narrow osseous bar, and a slender rod is developed to the zygomatic arch. The lower jaw has the ascending rami erect, and without cavities at the bottoms of the coronoid processes, but behind it is contracted under the ascending rami. The sternum has an elongated manubrium ; the scapula is destitute Fig. 84. — Scalops aquaticus, common mole of America. of a metacromion process ; the clavicle is short but broad, and the humerus In-ojid and enlarged at its angles; the carpus is jioculiar in being furnished with an enlarged sickle-shaped bone. The moles essentially agree in habits as well as in structure. They are, as a whole, distributed throughout the entire northern hemisphere, ranging northward into Canada and Scandinavia, and southward nearly into the ti'opics, but in detail they exhibit noteworthy specialization ; grou])S, characterized by trenchant peculiarities of dentition, being limito">- i), ^^■ith the common mole of the Eastern United States, tS. aqiiatkns, and Scapanus (i. i], c. }, pni. |), with two species, /S. americanus, or breweri, and 6'. tovtisendi. , The Star-nosed Mole, Condylura cristata, is found throughout the northern United States and Canada, from tlie Atlantic to the Pacific. The generic name arose from the fact that in stuffed specimens the skin of the tail sometimes shrinks, so that the bones showing through give that member a jointed apjjearance. This species has forty-four teeth, the snout very long, and terminated by a circle of about twenty Fig. 85. — Condylura cristata, star-nosed mole. cartilaginous rays, in the centre of wliieh are the nostrils. In color the star-nosed mole is of a dark blackish gray, and the fur is very soft. In its habits this form closely resembles the true moles, living like them in underground burro^\s, which, however, are not constructed on such an elaborate plan as are those of Talpa europ>ea. The American moles are not as notable as the Eurojjean, either on account of damages committed or for complexity of architecture, altliougli the latter remains to be investigated. The common English mole — Talpa europea — has been the subject of niuch inves- tigation by various naturalists, and several volumes even have been devoted to the con- sideration of its habits, and the means of checking the damages which it commits in gardens, as well as fields. One of the most industrious and successful of its students and historians was Henri Le Court, a French investigator of the closing years of the last and the commencement of the present century, whose results were edited by Cadet de Vaux in a sjiecial work published in 1803. We cannot do better than jiresent the results of these investigations, as suumiarized by Bell in his history of British quad- rupeds. "The district or domain to which an individual mole confines itself maybe termed its encampment. Within its limits, or at least in immediate communication with 154 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. this district, all the labors of tlie animal are iHirsued. It consists of tlie habitation or fortress, from which extends the high road by which the animal reaches the opjjosite extremity of the encampment, and of various galleries or excavations opening into this road, which it is continually extending in search of food, and whicli constitute, in fact, its hvmting-ground. The fortress is formed under a large hillock, which is always raised in a situation of safety and protection, either under a bank, against the founda- tion of a wall, at a root of a tree, or in some similar locality. The earth, of which the dome covering this curious habitation is composed, is rendered exceedingly strong and solid, by being j)ressed and beaten by the mole in forming it. It contains a circular- gallery within the base, which communicates with a smaller one above by five nearly equidistant passages; and the domicile or chamber is placed within the lower and be- neath the ujjper circular gallery, to which last it has access by three similar passages. From the chamber extends another road, the direction of which is at first downwards Fig. 86. — Talpa europea, European mole, one-half natural size. for several inches; it then rises again to ojien into the high road of the encampment. From the external circular gallery open about nine other passages, the orifices of which are never formed oi)])osite to those which connect the outer with the inner and upper gallery ; those extend to a greater or less distance, and, according to De Vaux, return, eae"li taking an irregular semicircular route, and o))ening into the high road at various distances from the fortress. Such is a very hasty descrijition of this most singular structure ; and nothing surely can be imagined more admirably calculated to ensm-e the security or the retreat of the inhabitant, than such an arrangement of internal routes of communication as this. The chamber communicating beneath directly with the road, and abo^■e with the upjier gallery, — this with the lower by five passages, and the latter again with the road by no less than nine, — exhibit altogether a complication of architecture which may rival the most celebrated erections of the lieaver. "Another very important part of the encampment is the high road, which has been teraied by the continental naturalists ' the passage ' — a name which affords no dis- tinctive idea of its nature or use. It differs essentially from all the other routes and INSECTIVORA. 155 excavations, both in its construction and nse. It extends from the fortress to the extremity of the domain in nearly a direct line, forming in fact the main route of communication between the fortress and the different parts of the encampment ; and the alleys which lead to the hunting-ground, or quarries, open into it on each side. Its circumference is larger than the body of the mole, though not large enough to admit of two individuals passing each other. The walls are beaten by the frequent pressure of the animals' sides against them, until they become very smooth and compact : in fact, this road is principally formed by the compression of the earth which surrounds it, rather than Ijy actual excavation ; and hence the infrequeucy of mole-hills over it, com- pared with the number which are observed in connection with the alleys and the quarries, in forming which the earth is moved out of the way by being thrown up on the surface. In some instances tlie same mole forms a second and even a third road ; but this is generally done in order to extend its operations to a new and more produc- tive district. In other cases, many moles are known to employ one road, though they never intrude upon each other's hunting-ground: in this case, should two of them meet, one must retreat into the nearest alley, or a battle ensues, which proves fatal to the weaker of the comliatnnts. The road is formed at a greater or less depth from the surface, according to the nature of the soil, the danger of injury from superincumbent pressure, and other cii-cumstances. Thus, in safe situations, where there is nothing to disturb or threaten the security of its I'oof, it will be found at a dejith of about four or five inches ; whilst in other ])laces, as under a road or beneath a stream, the earth is left not less than a foot or a foot and a half deep above it. " As it is only on the high road that the mole can visit the different quarries or hunt- ing grounds of its domain, it is traversed regularly several times in the course of the day; hence it is only in this route that it can with any certainty be taken, and the traps are therefore always placed in its course by skilful mole-catchers, so as to inter- cept the animal in its journey between the fortress and that alley which may at the time hajipen to be the seat of its labors. " Tlie swiftness with which the mole will traverse its domain by means of this prin- cipal road, was made the subject of an amusing and satisfactory experiment by Le Court. Having ascertained the exact direction of the road, and finding that the mole was engaged in exploring for its food the ground at the farthest extremity from the fortress, he placed along its course, at certain distances, several pieces of straw, one extremity of which penetrated within the ])assage, and to the other end was fixed a little flag of paper. He also introduced into the passage near the end a horn, ■with the mouth-piece standing out of the ground. Then waiting till he was sure of the mole's presence at tliat part of the road, he Ijlew into the horn, to use the words of Geoffroy, '■un cri effroyuhW ; when, in a moment, the little flags were successively thrown off, as the mole, in its rapid course towards its fortress, came in contact ^\-ith the interior extremities of the straws, and the sjiectators of this neat and demonstrative experiment aftirm tiiat the speed of the frightened mole was equal to that of a horse at full trot. "The alleys or galleries are opened from the sides of the road, and generally mcline a little downward from their origin towards their termination. We have already stated that the mole forms the alleys by the expulsion of the earth ; whilst the pas- sage or high road is formed princii^ally by its consolidation. Wlien an alley is opened, if a plentiful supply of food be found, the mole j^roceeds to form various ramifications from its extremity, throwing up fresh mole-hills as it advances in its search after its 156 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. prey ; but if the situation prove but sterile, another alley is opened at a different part of tlie- road. These excavations are more or less deej), according to the nature of the soil, and the degree of humidity, — circumstances which regulate the situation in which the earth-worms most abound. In forming its runs, or excavating its quarries, it jjushcs the loosened earth before it till it arrives at the last formed hillock or mole- hill ; and when this becomes too distant, it makes its way to the surface through the solid earth, forming a new shaft over wliich another hillock is gradually made by the successive portions of earth which are brought from the scene of its mining operations. "But the labors of the mole are not confined to the excavations already mentioned. In lands newly sown in summer witli liarley or turnips, the surface of which is conse- quently light and yielding, after moderate rain, which has brought the earth-worms to the surface, the mole follows them, and pursues its chase along the superficial layer of the soil, digging a shallow continuous ti-eneh, in which work it advances with great rapidity. This is done by merely forcing its way through the light soil, and thus lift- ing it up ; and mole-catchers take advantage of these times to steal softly ujion them, and throw them out of the ground with their paddle. But great quickness is necessary in doing this, for the mole will bury itself again so rajjidly as often to escape, even when fairly thro^vn on to the sui-face. We have on more than one occasion seen a mole making so shallow a run, that the fine soil lias fallen away on each side, leaving the creature's back exposed to \'iew. It is said tliat the gravid female, to whom the usual excavations in the subterranean alleys would be too laborious, limits herself prin- cipally to this lighter toil." Sub-Ordeu II. — Deemoptera. The flying, or rather skimmmg insectivores have the members modified for partial flight or progression in the air, the limbs being elongated and slender and connected by an extension of the skin ; the lower jaw has the condylar portions flaring outward, and the incisor teeth of the lower jaw are jjalmate and iiectinated, and those of the upper, as well as the anterior molars of both, are more or less conical. Only one family, and indeed not certainly more than one species of this group is known. This family of G^vleopithecid^, in more detail, exhibits the following additional peculiarities : — It has a membrane connecting the anterior and posterior feet, extending as far as the digits ; and behind, an interfemoral membrane embracing a jjortion of the tail, and also extending to the innermost digits ; and even in front there is an incipient membrane on each side of the inner faces of the limbs. There are five toes to each of the feet, and the claws are arched and compressed. The head is somewhat fox-like, and the ears rather short. But the chief peculiarity is in the dentition. There are sixteen teeth in the upper jaw and eighteen in the lower. The incisors in the lower jaw are six, four have broad, compressed, and very deeply digitated crowns, and attenuated roots, while the two lateral ones (one on each side) are more distant and less special- ized in form ; the incisors in the upjjer jaw are four in numbei-, and those of the I'e- spective sides are widely separated. The so-called canines have double roots and wide crowns, and rescTuble the premolars, which, with the molars, are five in number, and . have severally three roots and three to five cusps. The teats are on the sides of the breast near the axils. There are at most two species of this singular type, and even these ar-e doubtfully distinguished. The common if not only species is the Colugo or Gahopithecus volans. INSECTIVORA. 157 whicli is found in Sumatra, Borneo, and Malacca. It is an arboreal animal, and passes from one tree to another with ease by means of its extended membranes, but it is not a true animal of flight like the bat, although much more entitled to be called a flying- animal than the flying-squirrels or Anomalures. Mr. Wallace, who had the opjiortunity of observing its movements in a state of nature, says, " Once, iu a bright twiligiit, I saw one of these animals run up a trunk in a rather open place, and then glide obliquely through the air to another tree, on which it alighted near its base and immediately began to ascend. I paced the distance from the one tree to the other and found it to be seventy yards, and the amount of descent I estimated at not more than thirty-five or forty feet, or less than one in five. This, I think, proves the animal must have some Fig. 87. — Galeopithecus volans, colugo, kaguan, oue-fiftli natural size. power of guiding itself through the air, otherwise in so long a distance it would have little chance of alighting exactly upon the trunk." The power of thus guiding itself Mr. Wallace refers to the tail, and he suggests that it may rise over obstacles in its course " by the elevatory action of that organ." The colugo appears to shun the bright daylight, and to be most active during the hours of twilight and early dawn. It is at any rate said to be quite sluggish during the day, and to be found rarely moving, but generally clinging to trees ; if distui-bed it will run slowly uji by means of its feet. The exact dietetic habits of the colugo are imperfectly known. According to Wallace, like the cuscus of the Moluccas, it feeds chiefly on leaves, but it is claimed also 158 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. to at least supplement its food with insects. That there is something peculiar in its food or manner of feeding is indicated by the strange dentition, but what are those peculiarities remains to 'be decided by observation. The contents of the stomach have not even been examined to a sufficient extent to guide us in an ojjiuiou. A summary of the families now described may be of service. Mr. Alfred R. "Wallace, and following him, Mr. W. S. Dallas, estimate the total number of species of Insectivora at one hundred and thirty-five, and of these about sixty-five, or nearly one half, belong to the single family of shrews. Tlie most recent statistics, however, add largely to this total, and reverse the relative proj)ortions. Accept- ing the data exhibited by Dr. Dobson and by Dr. Trouessart, two hundred and eight existing species of insectivores are known, and one hundred and twenty-six of these are soricids. It is possible that when the soricids have been more critically stxidied theii- number may be raaterialy reduced. The extinct insectivores already described are numerous, but as many are known only from fragmentary skeletons, it is not certain that all of the forms referred to the order really belong to it. Professor Cope has rccentlj- proposed a classification of the order which takes into consider.ation both the recent and extinct forms, but it is of too technical a character for insertion here. Seven extinct groups of family rank are known. Most of these fossil forms are of tertiary age, and the Territory of Wyoming has furnished a large proportion of them. The Talpidse date back to eocene times, one genus occurring in the French rocks of tliat age, and another, TaJpartis, in the rich beds of Wyoming. Allies of Gyninwa also occur in the eocene of France. In the miocene we find representatives of the Myogalidse and Erinaceidse, a fossil hedgehog belonging to the same genus as the living forms, occurring in the strata of France. In the same rocks also occur shrews much like tlie recent species. These forms all belong to the dilambdodont series ; but if Pro- fessor Cope is correct in his views concerning the fossil families, the zalambdodont type predominated in the early tertiaries. Our knowledge is as yet too slight to warrant any generalizations upon the probable phylogeny of the various gronps. Theodoke Gill. BA TS. 159 Okder IV. — CHIROPTERA. Next to the insectivorous mammals, ami probablj- (lerivativos from the same com- mon stock with them, are the Bats, constituting the order Chiroptera. These may be defined, in contrast with the insectivores, as mammals with the anterior limbs modified for flii'ht by the elongation of the forearm, and the still greater development of four of the fingers, all of which are connected together by a membrane, which likewise extends to the hind feet. The bones of the forearm are united, and the ulna is reduced to a rudiment. The hind limbs are so rotated that the knee bends backward ; they are otherwise comparatively little modified, but they, as well as the forelimbs, are entirely free from the body, as far as their proximal segments are concerned, as in the Primates, but contrary to what prevails in most mammals, in which those segments (the arm and the leg) are included in the common integument of the body. A special cartilaginous element, named the calcar, is generally de^-eloped, originating from the ankle joint at its inner side, and is directed inward ; its object is to support the inter- femoral membrane, which more or less envelops the tail, and extends between the hinder limbs. The teeth are encased in enamel, and of three kinds, molars, canines, and incisors, and are also developed in two sets, milk and permanent. The lower jaw has well develojjcd condyles, which are received in special sockets. The placenta is discoidal and dceiduate. The species exemplif jdng these characters are very numerous, about four hundred being recognized by the latest monograi)her. Dr. George E. Dobson, to whom we are indebted for most of our information res])eeting the groui). The terse English term, Bat, is applied to all the reiiresentatives of the order (although not exclusively), but in many languages the common name bears some relation to the supposed resemblance of the form to other animals : for example, among the Germans, the equivalent of Bat is Fledermaus, or the flitter mouse, and among the French, it is Chauve-souris, which also indicates a relationship to the mice. The common English term, however, has not always been so generally in use, for our early English ancestors used the close equivalent of the present German name, flitter-mouse, as well as rere-mouse. The meaning of the older term, flitter-mouse, is practically the flying, or flittering mouse. The generality of the current word, Bat, may lie subject, however, to a proviso, for although no other name may ever be heard in America, and rarely in England, for these animals, it is said that in some parts of the latter country flinty- mouse, evidently a corrujjtion of flitter-mouse, is still in use. Among the places where such is said to be the case are jiarts of Hampshire, including Selborne; and of Kent. Although among tlie most sjiecialized and aberrant of mammals, and numerous in species, as v,-ell as the more comprehensive gi'oups, at the same time the order is one of the most natural and comjiact in the animal kingdom, and according to the leading- student of the group, " of all the orders of mammals none are so well-defined as the Chiroptera: the presence of true wings at once distinguishes them; and this peculi- arity is accompanied by other modifications of bodily structure having relation to aerial locomotion. Thus, in direct contrast to all other animals (in which locomotion is chiefly effected by action from behind, and the hind limbs accordingly ])reponderate in size), in the Chiroptera the fore limbs, being the only agents in propelling the body 160 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. forward during flight, immensely exceed the short and weak hind extremities ; the thorax, giving origin to the great muscles which sustain flight, and containing propor- tionately very large lung's and heart, is remarkably capacious, and the ribs are flattened and close together ; the shoulder-girdle also is greatly developed in comparison with the weak pelvic bones. Other structural modifications secondary to these are observable in the form of the bony skeleton, in the integumentary system, in the alimentary canal, and in other pai'ts of the body." The peculiar appearance of the Bat, and its relations to its surroundings, have caused it to be looked ujion as a weird and uncanny animal : making its appearance at dusk, flitting about in the night in noiseless flight, suddenly met and unannounced, it has engendered superstition among the vulgar and also given birth to strange concep- tions in art. It was one of the unclean animals of the Jews : it was consecrated by the ancient Greeks to Proserpine, and the witches were wont to employ it in their mystic potions. The evil sjiirits are represented in painting with bat-like wings, and thus contrasted with the spirits of light, to whom the wings of birds are attributed. " To the fancy of the ancients," says Dr. Harrison Allen, " of placing the wings of a bat upon demons, is happily opposed the sweet conceit of the poets in adorning the sjjirits of angels and cherubim with the wings of birds. The wing of the bat is sombre and angular ; that of the bird is of delicate hues and replete with curves. It is, there- fore, poetic justice to have the one become tlie emblem of the infernal as the other is the expression of the heavenly form." But the bats are not always regarded as unwelcome intruders, and of evil omen. The Rev. Hilderic Friend, of London, remarks that "while the bat has long been regarded by us as foreboding misery and death to the inmates of the liouse where it entered, the Chinese look upon it as one of the most auspicious of creatures. Shortly after my marriage, we were one night very much startled at the loud squeaking of some strange visitor, and, on looking up, found that a bat which had come to make a call, having fixed itself firmly to the mosquito curtain, was flapping its wings and mak- ing a most hideous noise. We managed .at last to drive it away, and were much comforted in the morning when the native Chinese servants informed us that it was a most happy omen. In Samoa one species of bat is a great pet of the inhabitants of that group of islands." However the bat's wings may apjjear to the jioet and artist, they are very efficient for the animal itself. The adaptation for flight is quite peculiar ; the other so-called flying mammals — the flying squ.irrels and the anomalures — are not really entitled to the name, for in them merely a membranous extension of tlie skin between the members exists, which serves rather to deaden their fall than enable them to fly at will. Even the colugo cannot be compared, as a fl3'ing animal, with the bats. The name Chiroptera (cheiros, hand, and pteron, wing) well expresses the mode of adaptation for volant exercise, for, as already indicated, the main part of the wing is constituted by the hand, wliose fingers are excessively elongated, and the membrane connecting them as well as extending to the hind limbs is extremely thin, and supplied with nerves which render it very sensitive and enables the animal to direct its course even when blinded. A noteworthy feature in the physiology of the bats is the development of glands, which may occvir in different regions, and which are chiefly developed in the male. These are supposed to be odoriferous, and are especially found in the more specialized foi-ms of the animalivorous group. BA TS. 161 The function of these glands, it is supposed by Dr. Dobsoii, is to act principall}' by- its odoriferous secretions " in bringing the sexes together in the dark retreats where tliey liide, as they are always found most abundant during the ruttiug-seasou ; but in the large species of Megachiroptcra, as in Pteropus^ which roost in trees, exjwsed to the attacks of passing animals, and in which they are always developed in the feiiuile, but to a less extent, the strong musky odor exhaled, which fills the air in the neighbor- hood of the haunts, is evidently protective." The number of young and the mode in whicli those young are nourished are determined or limited by the habits of the animal. Only two young are born together, but in many cases not more than one is brought up, and Dr. Dobson remarks that he never found a mother with more than one clinging to her body. It is believed, how- ever, that the m.ale frequently assumes not onlj' the duties of paternitj- but of feeding the young. The teats have been found highly developed in the males of a number of species, and Dr. Dobson remarks that the size of the pectoral teats in many male specimens led him to think that instances of the male performing the office of nurse are probably not uncommon among bats. But whatever rnay be the truth respecting the assumption of such an office, it is not doubtful that he does attend to his mate and young with considerable assiduity, and he is said at times to place himself in front of the mother, so that the young may be equally protected and warmed by both parents at the same time. The males are sometimes especially adapted for carrying the young, as in the case, for example, of the Chiromeles torquatus, of the oriental region, which has a nursing pouch developed as in the female, so that when two young are born together the male may relieve the female of the charge of one of them. Dr. Dobson has shown also that other bats, such as the frugivorous species Cynonycteris grandiclieri and Cynopterus marginatus, have likewise special adaptation for carry- ing the young. The bats are sociable and gregarious, but the two sexes do not, as a rule, inter- mingl«>, and only come together at the nuptial season. At other times they live apart, and sometimes at considerable distances, so that in a large colony of a given species not a single individual of the female sex may be found, while in another the females will aljound and not a male occur. Although the bats in external ajjpearance and adaptation to flight so closely resem- ble each other, they are nevertheless distinguished by salient differences among them- selves, even with reference to those characters which were formerly used to distinguish orders: for example, on account of differences of dentition, Linn^us referred the species thereof to two of his orders : the typical Noctilionids were associated with the rodents on account of the enlarged incisors, while most of the species were rele- gated to the primates on account of the pectoral position of the mammfe. They also differ very much in the nature of their food and the adaptation to its ingestion and digestion. In taking a preliminary survey of all tht' forms, however, it will soon become obvious that they may be differentiated into two primary groups, one of which is distinguished by smooth, longitudinally furroweiiriis .y^eclnuu, false vampyre. from all the others. By means of the foremost incisors, which are very much enlarged, convergent, and with points close together and acute, the}- nip and pierce the skin of the animal to which they affix themselves, and liy a jieculiar arrangement of the oral and intestinal ]iarts they ingest and assimilate the blood which is obtained by suction with the lips. The first ])ositive observer of the sjjecies whicli is guilty of these vampyrish acts was the iUustrious Charles Darwin. In his voyage around the world in the "Beagle," at the commencement of his career, while in Chili his attention was drawn to the fact. In his own words, " The vampyre-bat is often the cause of much trouble by biting the horses on their withers. The injury is generally not so much owing to the loss of blood as the inflammation which the jiressure of tlie saddle after- BATS. 177 wards produces. The whole cironmstance has lately been doubled in England. I was therefore fortunate in being present when one {Desinoduti (roi'bigniji) was actually caught on the horse's back. We were bivouacking late one evening near Couimbo, in Chili, when my servant, noticing that one of the horses was very restive, went to see what was the matter, and, fancying he could detect something, suddenly put his hand upon his withers and secured the vampyre." These observations have subsequently been confirmed by others, and it may be considered established that the two species, which are the only bats known to possess the peculiarities of oi-ganization above described, are dependent mainly on blood sucked from other mammals for sustenance. The second species of the family is Diphylla ecaudata, an inhabitant of Brazil. The Desmodits ru/us {D. d'' orhignyi of Darwin) has a much moi-e extended range, oceurrhig not only in Brazil, but extending into Chili, and thence northward into Mexico. Theodore Gill. Fig. 95. — Skeleton of bat. VOL. V. — 12 178 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. Order V. — CETACEA. The Cetacea, or whales, dolphins, and their kin, are the mammals of the sea, — hot- blooded, air-breathing creatures that have become specialized for a life in the broad domains of ocean, over which they reign supreme, the despotic devourers of lower ver- tebrate and invertebrate life. Though shark or sword-fish may occasionally destroy the smaller dolphins, no finny cold-blooded monster is a match for the rapacious orca, with his terrible array of teeth, untiring activity, and matchless velocity ; the great whalebone whales are secured by their size and strength from the attacks of any creature not belonging to their own order ; and in the jaws of the huge sperm-whale, the long arms and deadly suckers of the ki'aken avail it nought — its struggles are powerless as those of a mouse in the clutches of a cat. The Cetacea are fish-like in shape, and this coincidence of form, joined with a similarity of habitat, has caused, and still causes them to be popularly regarded as fishes, while the chase for them is known as the " whale-fishery." To preserve the physiologically active body, kept by the rapid consumption of oxygen at a temperature slightly higher than that of the mammals of the land, from injury from the cold elfement in which it resides, it is encased in a thick layer of fat or "blubber," for the sake of which man fits out vessels provided with hand-harpoons and lances, or, more murderous still, with the destructive bomb-gun, and so cruelly perse- cutes these, to him, defenceless creatures, that some of them have become scarce. One group of the Cetacea, the whalebone whales, the hugest of all existing animals, yet toothless, and provided with numerous long lamina? of horny substance, fringed with hair, are more persecuted by man than any other, for the " baleen " is of equal or greater value to him than the oil. The Cetacea have no neck; the outline of the head jjasses into that of the body, and in many cases the head is the broadest and deejaest jjart of the entire frame, which tapers from it backward. The bones of the neck are short, and usually more or less fused together, so much so that in some cases the entire seven vertebra form but a single bone. The second vertebra (atlas) is devoid of the odontoid process or peg upon which the head (in other mammals) rotates, and the bodies of all the cervical vertebrae are often mere disks. Stiffness and stability is thus secured in the anterior part of the spinal column, while flexibility and elasticity are conferred upon the remainder by the great thickness of the cartilages interposed between the centra of the vertebme, which are large in proportion to their processes. Of the two pairs of limbs usually ])resent in the Mammalia, the Cetacea have only the antei'ior, and these are modified so as to appear externally as broad, flattened jiaddles, without separation into digits, and without indication of nails. Within this leather-covered paddle are bones more numerous than those usually fouud in the class, for though the digits do not exceed five, some have more than three phalanges. The wrist-bones (carpals) are not articu- lated to each other, but are imbedded in a fibrous tissue ; and the radius and ulna are short, flattened bones incapable of movement upon each other, and not freely movable upon the short, thick humerus. The shoulder-bone is comparatively large, broad, and stout, and there are no clavicles. Although the hinder limbs are externally absent, there remain within the body the traces of a former functional pelvis in the form of two rather small elongated bones, which probably represent the iscliia, and are connected with the backbone by fibrous WHALES. 179 tissue. Thus, in the structure of tlieir limbs, the Cetace.i are lowest of all Mammalia, degraded, by life in an element which affords them no hard surface on which to exercise Figs. 96 and 07.— Skull of adult sijcim wlialo from above and from the side. 6A. Basihyoid. eo. Ex occipital. /. Frontal, imp and rmp. Premaxillaries. m. Maxillary, n. Nasal, p. Parietal, pt. Palatine, s. Squamosal, sft. Stylohyoid, so. Supra occipital, th. Thyrohyoid, co. Vomer. their limbs, to such a point that their hind limbs have become atrophied, and their fore limbs converted into pectoral fins. The e.xternal resemblance to fishes is heightened by the invariable presence of a broad, double-lobed caudal fin, which is, however, flat- FlG. S. — Longitudinal section of a skull of a sperm whale, showing the relatively small size of the cavity for the brain, as. Alisphenoid. bs. Basisphenoid. bo. Basi occipital, e. Ethmoid, p. Cranial cavity, pm. Pre- maxillary. ps. Paraspheuoid. Other letters as before. tened horizontally instead of vertically (as is the case in fishes), and by the very general, though not universal, production of a raised, fleshy, compressed dorsal fin from some pomt between the head and the caudal. But, degraded though the Cetacea are, the convoluted brain, and the perfection of all their internal organs, point to a descent 180 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. from the higher rather than from the lower Mammalia, and, though our knowledge of their halrits is but meagre, evidence is not wanting that they are endowed with con- siderable intelligence. The structure of the nasal cavities in this grouj) is widely different from that found in any other mammals. As the dolphins have no olfactory nerves, and the place usually occupied by tlie sieve-like plate through which the nerves pass is filled by im- perforate bone, the sense of smell must be wanting ; but the nostrils in both whales and dolphins, instead of ending at the tip of the snout, are continued upwards through the flesh to the summit of the head, where they open externally by one or two aper- tures, called spiracles or " blow-holes," and form the means by ^^hioh these animals can breathe without raising the front of the head out of water. Tlie eyes are small, and devoid of a third eyelid ; the ears are destitute of any trace of an external ])innn, though internally they do not greatly differ from those of other mammals, and touch and taste a])])ear to be well-developed. The female possesses two Fig. 99. — Skull of sperm whale from beneath. jH. Pterygoid. Other letters as before. teats, lodged in depressions on each side of the vulva. Adults are almost entirely destitute of the hairy covering usual among inammals. Among the peculiarities of the skeleton are the want of a sacrum, correlated with the atrophy of the hind limbs ; the absence of the usual articulations between the arches of the lumbar and caudal vertebras, wliich thus possess the great mobility neces- sary for the effective play of the great caudal fin, the powerful vertical strokes of which are the agents by which the heavy bodies of the Cetacea are driven onwards through the water ; the small number of ribs which are connected with the breastbone ; and the singular modifications undergone by the bones of the skull. In all Cetacea, that part of the upper jaw which lies in front of the bony nostrils is much prolonged, result- ing in a great development of the maxillary and inter-maxillary bones, the former of which extend backward and outward over a large, or even over the greater jiart of the frontals. The frontals are largo and broad, extending outward into broad, bony plates that cover the orl)it, and backward on the summit of the head till they join the su])ra- occipital bone, which is greatly developed ; so that the parietals are entirely excluded WHALES. 181 from the ujjper surface of the head, and instead of meeting in a sagittal or median suture, as usual in Mammalia, are comparatively small bones, placed low upon the sides of the cranium. The supra-orbital extension of the frontal is met by a stout pro- cess from the squamosal part of the temporals ; the jugal bones are small and slender ; the nasals are short and sometimes reduced to bony processes of the frontals, thus allowing the nasal passages to be nearly vertical ; the turbinals are usually rudimentary, and the l^eriotics or " ear bones " are so loosely connected with the skull that they readily fall out in a prepared skeleton. Another peculiarity of the cranium in this order is its want of symmetry. This is least observable in the true whales or Bala^noidea, while in most of the rest of the order the entire facial part of the skull is distorted. The teeth, when present, are not distinguished into incisors, canines, and molars, but are similar, of simple structure, and usually of conical shape. They have no suc- cessors. The sockets in which they grow are often incompletely separated from each other, and no tooth in the living forms has more than one root. Salivary glands appear to be absent ; and the soft jjalate is very long and muscular. The stomach of the Cetacea repeats, in some respects, the character of that of the ruminants, since it is divided into several compartments. This similarity of structure between an entirely carnivorous and an entirely herbivorous group is very remai'kable, and, coupled as it is with the existence of a fold or groove, like that occurring in the ruminants, between the first and second compartments, has led some naturalists to sus- pect that the Cetacea have the power of chewing the cud. Others deny this, and assert that the incompleteness of the groove, as well as its termination in the second compartment instead of in the third, would necessarily cause a difference in the process. This complexity of stomach lends probability to the idea put forward by Professor Flower, that the Cetacea may have descended from ungulate ancestors. However this may be, the Cetacea have highly complex stomachs, and this com- plexity is doubtless correlated with some physiological peculiarity. In the beluga or white whale, five compartments exist, reckoning as one a small chamber, not visible on an external view of the stomach, interposed between the second and fourth, both of which are large. The fifth, in which digestion takes place, is long and narrow, tapering from commencement to end, and recalls the aboraasum or fourth chamber of the rumi- nants. The number of chambers in the stomachs of other cetaceans is variously reported, probably because the small hidden chamber above mentioned, as well as the duodenal dilatation, have been omitted by some, while one or both have been counted by others. The grampus or orca has five ; DeljMnus, four or five ; the narwhal and Platanista, five ; the porpoise, three or four ; Ihjperoodon., seven ; and Zipldus., eight. The sperm whale is said to have three, while the whalebone whales are credited with four. The intestines are longer in the toothed Cetacea than in the true whales, for, while in the rorqual they are rather more than five times the length of the body, they are, in the beluga and the common dolphin, more than six times ; in Granifpus rissoamts, seven times ; in Globiocephalus and Delphinus orca at least eight times, and in the sperm whale more than sixteen times the length of the body. No ca?cum exists in the toothed whales, nor is there any distinction between large and small intestines. Few of the Cetacea have a gall bladder, and in most of the order the hepatic and pan- creatic ducts unite before they pass through the intestinal walls. The whalebone whales have a large ventral air-sack connected with the larynx, and this was once thought to be a structure jteculiar to them, but the beluga and the gram- 182 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. pus have also a small air-sack, and Messrs. "Watson and Young consider the structure to be equivalent to the ventricles of the larynx of other mammals. The epiglottis and the arytenoid cartilages are more or less prolonged, giving the entire glottis the shape of a funnel, the ajjex of which is embraced by the soft palate, so that a continuous passage is formed from the internal nostrils to the larynx, dividing the gullet into two passages. Thus a cetacean is able to swallow while breathing. The very shoit trachea gives off a third bronchus to the right lung. In order to afford reservoirs of blood for the use of the animals during their long stay below the surface, the arteries and veins form great plexuses or retia niirabilia in various parts of the body, especially in the cavity of the thorax, on each side of the spinal column, and between the ribs. The veins are almost entirely without valves, and this, together with the pressure of the sea-water at the depths to which the animals descend in the hope of effecting their escape, accounts for the fatal hemorrhage which follows the puny wound uiflicted by a lance in the hand of a man. The earliest appearance of cetacean remains in the strata of the earth's crust is in the eocene, and they occur in all subsequent formations. Among the most remarkable is the extinct Zeuglodon, the type of the sub-order Phocodontia, and apparently in many respects intermediate iii character between the Sirenia (manatee and dugong) and the Cetacea, while in others they connect the seals with the latter order. Another Phocodont is Squalodon. In this sub-order the neck vertebras are separate, the skull is symmetrical, the nasal bones are longer than in the other Cetacea, and there are molar teeth with laterally-compressed ci'owus, serrated edges, and two fangs, like those of many seals. Zeuglodon differs from all other Cetacea in having vertical suc- cessors to some of the teeth. The Cetacea are divisible into three pi-imary gi'oups : the Balienoidea or Whales, the Delphinoidea or Dolphins, and the extinct Phocodontia. Stxb-Obder I. — Delphinoidea. In the Dolphins, the bones of the cranium are always more or less unsymmetrical, owing principally to the union of the spiracles and increased development of the left nasal passage. In its course from the openings in the nasal bones to the summit of the head, the nasal passage is dilated into sack-like chambers of dimensions varying in the different species. Some of the anterior ribs have heads and necks, and are articulated to the bodies of the vertebrne ; tlie sternum, instead of the broad, short form found m the whalebone whales, is elongated and formed of several pieces, and some of the ribs are united to it by the intervention of bony or cartilaginous sternal ribs. The maxillaries are produced further u]iward and backward than in the Balfenoidea, so much so that they to a great extent cover the frontal bone ; while the branches of the mandible are not arched outward, but are united together for a greater or less distance, and often form with the cranium a pronounced narrow beak. Teeth, in variable numbers, are always present. The Delphinoidea may be subdivided into several families, namely, Ziphiidie, Belugidas, Orcada;, Delphinidte, Platanistidae, and Physeteridffi. Ill the ZiPHiiD^, the species of which were not long ago supposed to be extinct, but which prove to be numerous in the Southern Seas, since some fourteen or more distinct W^HALES. 183 forms are now known, tliere are never more than one or two pairs of fully-developed teeth in tlie lower jaw, fitting into pits in the upper one ; a dorsal fin is present ; the pectoral is short, ovate, and jjlaeed low down upon the sides, with five digits beneath its enclosing skin ; and the cervical vertebra? are more or less united. The Australian Two-toothed Whale {Ziphius austvalis) is of a light ash-color, darker on the back, and without the convexity of forehead that distinguishes the New Zea- land Two-toothed Whale (Z. novce-zcelandice), which is known from examples that have been washed, or rather driven ashore, and attains a length of at least twenty-one and a half feet. The head, neck, and anterior parts, as far back as the dorsal, are white, and a narrow white line extends along the edge of the dorsal. The rest is black. There is no gradual blending of the colors into each other. A female of the latter species, nearly twenty feet long, \^-as driven ashore alive at New Brighton by one or two whales which remained at a safe distance. On examination of the animal after its death, it was found to be scored all over by the marks of wounds, some old and entirely healed, others recent and raw. The wounds consisted of pairs of parallel marks, an inch and a quarter to an inch and a half apart, and also of oval spots enclosing two punctures, the same distance apart. The wounds were, in fact, just such as would be inflicted by the two teeth of another ziphioid whale. The teeth of the females are believed by Dr. Haast to be absorbed with age to such an extent as to disappear below the gums, while even in the young females they are quite small. A male taken at Chatham Island, and probably belonging to this species, agreed with these females in every particular except the size of the teeth, which were two inches long and fom- inches around. The character of the wounds and the sex of the victim point to but one conclusion, which is, that the males of this species attack and worry the females, inflicting upon them wounds from their two teeth, which are larger in them than in their victims. In the other ziphioid genera the teeth are too far back in the jaw to be used in making the parallel scratches observed in the stranded female, whereas in this species they are in advance of the tip of the upper jaw. Another species of Ziphius, Z. cavirosiris, occurs along the European coasts, and has been taken off the coasts of Sweden and the Shetland Isles, as well as on other parts of the European coast. It attains a length of more than twenty feet. Ziphioid whales of the genus Jfesoplodon were until very recently known only from examj^les of 31. bidens that had drifted ashore at various points of the European coast ; but it is now ascertained that in the southern hemisphere they exist in considerable numbers, and one species at least is gregarious, having in two instances been met with in large schools. Twenty-five individuals of this species, which is called in New Zealand the Cow-fish {M. lyrai/i), were on one occasion stranded on the Chatham Islands. Seven good species of this genus are now known, but all, except the European Jf. bidens, ap- pear to be confined to the region from the Cape of Good Hope to the vicinity of New Zealand. The species differ from each in the position, form, and size of the single pair of teeth, in the presence of a groove or a ridge at the base of the rostrum, and other characters. They attain a length of from fourteen to twenty feet. In the genus Hyperoodon, or Bottle-nose Wliale, the beak of the skull has a high crest on each side, formed by the elevation of the maxillary bones in front of the blower. The cervical vertebrre are joined into one mass. The only species inhabits the North Atlantic and its adjacent seas and bays, and is now pursued to some extent for its oil, which is said to be equal to that of the sperm whale. In the young the front part of the head forms a beak, but this is obscured in the adults by the develop- 184 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. ment of immense bony crests, which finally give the head a form not unlike a trunk or portmanteau. The young and adult have, until very recently, been considered as dis- tinct species. The family Belugid^ contains but two well-characterized species, the beluga, or white «hale, and the narwhal, both of which have short, rounded heads, few teeth, no dorsal fin, a small ovate pectoral, and five cervical vertebrje. The Beluga, or White Whale {Delphinapterus leucas) is, when adult, of a uniform yellowish white, or ci'eam color. The young are leaden or bluish black, but soon become mottled, and finally lose all the darker tint. The forehead is boldly rounded, but between tlie head and the back there is a depression which gives the appearance of a neck. The short, tieshy ]>ectoral is placed further behind the eyes than the latter are from the end of the jaws. There is no dorsal ; the spiracle is slightly behind the eye, and the body tapers grace- fully above and below to the caudal. An example sixteen and a half feet long measured three feet ten inches across the flukes, and the pectorals were one foot eleven inches in length. The teeth vary from six to eleven on each side of each jaw. The beluga is a rapid swimmer, and lives upon large fishes, which it not only chases along the shores, but follows up the rivers, sometimes to great distances. Dr. Dall states that in 1863 one was taken by the Russians up the River Yukon at about seven hundred miles from the sea. In pursuit of bottom-loving fishes, such as the halibut, it wiU often dart into shallows in which there is barely enough water to float its body, yet it betrays no alarm. It is often met with in schools, forming lines two or three abreast, or swimming in single file, spouting at irregular intervals, and showing but little of the body above water. Frequently it will gambol round a vessel, but a noise upon the water or a discharge of firearms frightens it away instantly. The white whale, of which there may be more than one species, has a wide distribu- tion, as it occurs in both oceans, along the northwest coast of Europe as well as that of America, and on the shores of both Old and New England. A beluga was taken in a singular manner a few years ago in some salmon nets, in the north of Scotland. Comuig too close in shore after the salmon, it was caught by the tail between the stakes of the nets, and broke its back in its efforts to escape. On examination it was found that the creature had broken its neck before, but the bones had anchylosed in such a way that the head was fixed on in an unsymmetrical position, and barely room was left near the occijntal foramen for the issue of the spinal cord. A small female, one cf three that were taken off the coast of Labrador in 1878, was for a short time an inmate of the aquai-ium at Manchester, England, but died from the effects of the trip. Dissection showed that the tongue in this species, instead of being free at the tip and along the margins, as m most dolphins, is almost as closely attached as is the same organ in the whalebone whales, as only the tip is capable of motion. There is no trace of tonsils or uvula, and the liver differs from that of any otlier toothed cetacean in the lack of any division into right and left lobes. True vocal chords are entirely absent, but the sharp inferior borders of the arytenoid cartilages present a similarity to tliem. In tlie singular cetacean, the Narwhal (Monodon monoceros), the skull resembles that of the beluga, but instead of the numerous teeth possessed by that and other dolphins, there is but one functional tooth, which forms an immense tusk, projecting from eight to ten feet beyond the tip of the jaw. This tusk is rooted in a socket formed by the maxUlary and intermaxillary bones of one side, while on the other, lodged in a WHALES. 185 siraUar silveolus, is a rudimentary tooth, nine or ten inches long, that does not usually project beyond the enclosing bone. This tusk, large in itself, is enormous compared with the animal, whose entire body without the tusk does not exceed thirteen or four- teen feet in lenoth, and eioht or nine in greatest girth. To bear the weight, and afford a secure support for this large tooth, the facial part of the skull is broader than in most dolphins, and the alveolus extends back beyond the maxillary notch. The males alone are possessed of this mighty weapon, while the females have two rudimentary teeth m a similar position. Scoresby once took a female which had a tooth four feet three inches in leno-th. In the living animal the upper part of the tusk is covered by a greasy Fig. 100. — Monodon monocerosy narwhal, crust, but the tip is kept white by use. The entire tooth, though straight, is spirally twisted throughout its whole length, the spiral being marked externally by rounded ridges and hollows that run along the tusk. The head of the narwhal is about one- seventh of the length of the body, the mouth is small, the eyes are on a line with the angle of the mouth ; the ears are about six inches farther back, and the pectorals aver- age one-twelfth of the total length of body and head. The central part of the body is^almost cylindrical, while the j.osterior part is conical, with a ridge above and below. Sucking animals are of a uniform bluish gray or slate tint, and very old individuals are almost white, but most adults have dark gray or blackish spots, of roundish or 186 • NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. oblong shape, scattered about upon the white ground-tint. Tliese spots are about two inches across on the back, where they are darkest and most crowded, become smaller, fewer, and fainter upon the sides, and ai-e almost obsolete upon the belly. The narwhal feeds upon fish and inollusks, and, notwithstanding its habit of re- maining motionless ujjon the surface for several minutes together, is an active animal. It yields an excellent quality of oil. The Greenlanders and Eskimos put every part of this creature to use; the flesh affords them food, the oil gives them light, the intestines are made into garments and twisted into lines, while the tusks are fashioned into spears and other weapons. The narwhal is found in the Arctic seas of both continents, but is so rare in the parts near Behring's Straits that the natives have a superstitious dread of its visits. The Oecad js have blunt, rounded heads ; teeth of varying size and number ; a dor- sal fin ; elongated pectorals ; and cervical vertebric more or less united. The principal genera are Orca, with a heavy skull, thick lower jaw, and numerous powerful teeth ; Globiocephalus, with a particularly swollen liead ; comparatively weak teeth in the front part of the jaws, very long pectorals, and a breastbone of -three pieces; and Grampus, which has a low dorsal, placed further back than in the other genera, teeth that fall out early in the upper jaw, and are confined to the short symphysis of the lower, and a sternum formed of a single bone. Eiglit species of Orca, eleven or twelve of Globi- ocephalus, and four or five of Grampus have been described. The comparatively diminutive Cetacea belonging to the genus Orca, and commonly known as "killers," are probably the only creatures that habitually attack and destroy the great whalebone whales, and even these appear, except when pressed by hunger, to prefer the young of those monsters. The jaws are extremely massive, the entire cra- nium strongly built, and the teeth large, stout, conical, and few in number compared with those of most other dolphins, resembling in this respect tliose of the sperm whale. There are several sjDCcies, the best known of which are Orca gladiator of the North Atlantic, and 0. rectipinna and O. ater of the North Pacific. The last-named is jet-black above and lighter below, with a clear-white oblong spot just behind the eyes, and a crescent^shaped maroon band on the back, liehind the dor- sal, which it more than half encircles. The dorsal fin is well develojjed, and concave on its posterior border. Rather larger is 0. rectipinna, the Straight-finned Killer, the dorsal fin of which is almost sti'aigiit, and six feet or more in height. At its tip this fin is so slender that it often turns over, and the appendage seems altogether too large for tlie body of an animal, the full-grown males of which measure some twenty feet, and the females about fifteen feet in length, giving to its otherwise graceful motions an appearance of un- wieldiness. No parasites reside upon the smooth and glossy skin of these swift corsairs of the ocean, — insatiate devourers that enter the bays and lagoons in chase of seals, dolphins, and whales; who swim uj) swift rivers in search of salmon and other large fishes, and who destroy more than they devour, killing for sheer love of slaughter. Three or four of these creatures, according to Captain Scammon, will attack the largest whalebone whales, which seem paralyzed by the onslaught, and frequently lie helpless, making no effort to escape, like the hare that suffers itself to be caught by a weasel. The orcas cluster round the head of their victim, seize it l)y its huge lips, drag it below the water, and eat out its tongue if the mouth is ojien when it finally succumbs. WHALES. 187 On the northwest coast of North America these orcas have been known to seize upon a whale that has been captured by whalers, and to finally bear it away, in spite of blows from boat-spades and thrusts from lances. Especiallj' they haunt the seal islands along the western coast of North America, and gorge themselves with young seals in the breeding-season of those creatures. The largest male sea^lions retreat to the shore when orcas show their fins around, and it is said that the walrus is afraid of them, though ScamuKjn believes that the fear, on the part of animals so well-armed with tusks, must be principally on account of their young. The walrus cub mounts on its mother's back for protection, but the cunning orca dives under the ice, comes up with a sudden shock that shakes its victim into the water, and seizes and swallows it before the eyes of its mother. The network of bays and sounds that stretches along the coast of British Columbia and Alaska is the favorite resort of orcas throughout the year, and they assemble near the moutlis of rivers to devour the seals and dolphins that have gathered to feed on the ascending salmonoids. Dolphins overtaken by them are literally swallowed alive, and the orcas may be seen to lift up their heads with a seal in their jaws, shaking and crushing it ore they engulph it in their maw. Further north the beluga is their favorite food. These orcas do not gather into large schools, but are usually in squads of a dozen, or less, though occasionally more may be found together. The whalers seldom take them, as they yield comparatively little oil ; but the In- dians of Washington Territory capture them for the sake of their flesh, which they esteem more than that of whalebone whales. The teeth are twelve or thirteen in number on each side of each jaw. The Orca of the Atlantic, 0. gladiator, is the equal of the Pacific species in ferocity and destructiveness. Eschricht narrates that it has been seen to swallow four porpoises, and thirteen porpoises and fourteen seals have been found in the stomach of one indi- vidual only sixteen feet long. The best-known species of the genus Globiocephalus, which has, as its name implies, a short and rounded head, is G. melas, the Caing Whale of Scoresby, tolerably abundant ujjon the northern coasts of both sides of the Atlantic. The pectoral is large, equal to about one-fourth of the total length of the animal. All the species of this genus asso- ciate in large herds. Another Atlantic species is the Short-finned Globiocephalus ( G. hrachyiJtenis), the Blackfish of the Middle and Southern United States. It is entirely black, with a low, long dorsal situated more anteriorly than that of G. melas ; a pectoral about one- sixth of the total length, and five or six small teeth on each side of each jaw. GlohiocepJialus scammoni, the Blackfish of the Pacific coast, assembles in large schools, and is usually found in the same localities with sperm whales, but nearer the coast, entering bays and lagoons to feed on small fish. It also devours large quantities of squid. The back is nearly straight, curving down abruptly to the tail, and the fore- head forms a full quadrant. From end of jaw to tip of tail it measures fifteen to six- teen feet ; the flukes are about three and a half feet across, and the pectoral about two- ninths the total length. Tlie oil is inferior to that of the sperm, and the yield is small, but the flesh, after exposure to the air and proper cooking, is sufficiently savory to tempt whalemen to eat it for a change of food. It is most abundant from Guatemala to Peru. The species of the genus Gramjnis have been popularly confounded with those of the genus Orca, which they resemble in their large size, as well as in their general 188 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. form, but from which they differ gi-eatly in the small number and diminished size of their teeth. The j)ectorals are small, and the dorsal low and placed far back. The best-known species are Risso's Grampus ( G. rissoanus) of the Mediterranean ; Cuvier's Grampus ( G. grtseus) of the North Sea and both coasts of the North Atlantic, and the Cape Grampus {G. richardsonii) of South Africa. Scammon mentions several species of Grampus as found in the Pacific, and lunnes them the White-headed Grampus, the Bottlenose Grampus, the Panama Grampus, and the San Diego Bay Grampus. The second of these he states to be probably the largest of dolphins, as it attains a length of twenty-five feet. It occurs in schools of ten to thirty, the individ- uals of which act like small cachalots. It is not certainly known to be a Grampus. The White-headed Grampus ( G. steanisii) is about ten feet in length ; the muzzle is short, and the dorsal is like that of Orca ater, which it resembles in its movements. The head and anterior parts are white, frequently more or less mottled with gray in the region of the dorsal ; but the greater portion of the body is nearly black. It is usually found in large schools, though occasionally only two or three wander in company in search of fish and Crustacea. It is extremely wild and shy. The largest famil}- of toothed Cetacea is that of the Delphinib^, the members of which have the facial i)art of the head produced to a greater or less extent into a beak, and are provided with numerous conical teeth in both jaws. In this family the costal cartilages are firmly ossified, and the posterior ribs are without heads, and are articu- lated only to the transverse processes of the vertebrffi by means of the tubercle. Between sixty and seventy species have been described, but it cannot be said that all are well-known or well-characterized. JVeomeris and Leiicorlimnplms have no dorsal fin. The genera N^eotneris, Phocnua (porpoises), Orcella., and Pseudorca approach the Orcadse in the rounded form of the head ; but in the other genera the length of the beak increases, until in Clynienia, Delphinus, and Steno it attains one and a half times or even twice the length of the brain-case. One of the smallest of Cetacea, certainly the smallest of our Pacific coast species, is the Bay Porpoise {Phoccena vomerina), which never exceeds six feet in length, and is more xisually four or five. The male is black, a little lighter below, but the female has the lower parts milky- white. The pectoral is very small and low down, much behind and below the eyes ; the body is very stout in proportion to its length ; the head is short but pointed, and the teeth number twenty-one to twenty-six on each side. The favorite resort of this species is the discolored waters between the rivers and the ocean, and it rarely ascends rivers or ventures far to sea. It frequents roadsteads and harbors, and will come close to vessels, but does not exhibit the playfulness of the larger dolphins, and it is seldom that more than six or eight are found tQ<5ether. The Indians of Nootka Sound shoot them as they lie motionless, basking upon the surface. The genus Phoccmm includes several other species, all of them of small size. The best known of them is the common Porpoise of the Atlantic {P. communis), a familiar object to all who have lived much by the sea-shore. Another Atlantic species is the Banded Porpoise (P. lineata), in which a band of rosy brown runs along the side of the body between the black of the upper and the white of the lower surface. The Orcella, or Dolphin of the Irrawaddy ( Orcella fluminalis), is of a uniform dirty white color, and measures about seven and a half feet in length. It is one of the few species of Cetacea that live in fresh water, as its habitat is the Irrawaddy River, which it ascends to a distance of from three hundred to nine hundred miles WHA LES. 189 from its mouth. Its nearest relative, the Sliort-nosed Orcella (0. hrevirostris) is found along the western coast of the Bay of Bengal, where it frequents the mouths of tidal streams, and is known to ascend the outlets of the Ganges to a distance of seventy to eighty miles from the sea. This species is larger than the Irrawaddy doljihin, attain- ing a length of fifteen to twenty feet. The Pacific Ocean possesses two species of the genus Leucorhamplms^ one of which occurs upon the west coast of South America, the other on that of North America. The former {L. peronii), is black above and white below, the dividiiig line between the two colors passing above the pectorals. It has forty-four teeth on each side of each jaw. Zi. borealis, the Right Whale Porpoise of Scammon, has been seen from San Diego Bay to Behring's Sea. It does not congregate in large numbers, and seldom enters shallow bays or lagoons. The head is less beak-like tlian in the genus Delphinus. The Spectacled Dolphin {Lagenorhynchtis perspicillatus) is black above, with a black bar above the eye, lead color upon the sides, and white below. Other Atlantic species are X. gubernator and Z,. leucopterns ; the South Pacific furnishes Z,. albirostratus from South America, and L. clanculns from New Zealand ; and the North Pacific is roamed over by the species called by Scammon the Common Dolphin of the Pacific (X. obliquidens). The last has more than thirty teeth on each side of each jaw, a somewhat sharp snout, and a long dorsal. In color it is greenish black above, with broad longitudinal stripes of whitish gray alternating with dull l>lack on tlie sides, and pearly or snowy white on the under parts. Scammon states that it congregates in larger numljers, up to many hundreds, has a wider range, and manifests more activity than any other doljjhin of the North Pacific. These dolphins frequently j^lay about the bows of a shij) under sail, circling around her, and darting across her cutwater, the whole school tumbling and showing their fins in frolic. This species is often found in bays and lagoons where but little fresh water runs in, and lives principally on small fish, which it catches without apparent effort. Another Pacific species, the Cow-fish of Capt. Scammon ( Tursiop>s c/illii), is in its habits very much the reverse of the preceding, as it frequents lagoons in quest of fish, and may often be seen lazily moving along below the shade of the mangroves that fringe the shores of Lower California. It is quite solitary in its habits, usually roving singly or in pairs, though sometimes four or five are seen together ; and it is often found in company with the blackfish ( Globlocephalus scammoni), with porijoises, or even with the humpback whale. It is of a dull-black color, lighter below, has a low falcate dorsal fin, and possesses aliout twenty-four teeth on each side of each jaw. Delphinus delp/his is the Dolphiu of the Mediterranean, where it is exceedingly abundant ; but its range is not confined to that great sea, as it is found along the west coast of France, visits England in pursuit of the mackerel and j)ilchard, and is some- times found even in Norway and Denmark. It is usually about five feet long, but attains a length of seven feet, and is armed with numerous teeth, — nearly fifty on each side of each jaw. The numl)er of teeth is not constant, nor is it always equal on the two sides of the mouth. This species has fifteen pairs of ribs. The palate in this genus has, along each side of the posterior jiortion, a deej> groove, which is absent in Chjmenia and Zagenorhynchus. Three or four species of the genus Delphinus are credited to the Pacific Ocean, but the only one of which anytliing certain is known is Baird's Dolphin {D. bairdii), which has a long and slender beak-like snout, a forehead but slightly marked, and a slender body, that is, for the most part, of a black or greenish-black color above, and 190 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. gray upon the sides, while below there is a large lanceolate white patch. There is a white streak above the mouth, and a narrow white strip continued backwards from the angle of the mouth to behind the pectoral. The teeth, about fifty-three on each side above and forty-seven below, are slender and slightly recurved, and the dorsal is erect and conspicuous. Fig. 101.— Belphinus delphis, European dolphin. The next family, Platanistid^, contains only four species, which are distinguished from other Cetacea by the absence of any union or anchylosis among the vertebrse of the neck, and from the true dolphins in the cartilaginous condition of the anterior portions of the ribs. The jaws are very narrow, and the symphysis or line of union of the halves of the lower jaw is very long. The teeth are numerous in both jaws, and have compressed fangs ; and the eyes are small — in Platanista rudimentary. Altliough man)- species of dolphins ascend the large rivers of America and Asia, none are so completely fluviatile as Platanista gangetica, the Dolphin of the Ganges; jP. indi, the Doljjhin of the Indus ; and Inia geoffroyi, the Inia or Dolphin of the Amazons. The Inia, which occurs in the tributaries of the xVmazons as far inland as Bolivia, and the name of which is that given to it by a tribe of Bolivian Indians, has a long, narrow, cylindrical beak, furnished with scattered, stout, and crisp hairs ; broad and elongated obtuse pectorals, and a ridge along the back in place of the dorsal. The teeth vary from twenty-five to thirtj'-four on each side of each yxw, and all the poste- WHALES. 191 rior ones have a large lobe on their inner side. Tlie adult animal is seven or eight feet long. The Susu {Platanistu gangetica) iiiluiliits the Brahmapootra as well as the Ganges, and is common as high up as the foot-hills of the mountains. The teeth are numerous, — twenty-eight and twenty-nine on each side of each jaw; the eyes are quite rudi- mentary, and the posterior teeth are without the tubercle found in the Inia. It feeds upon tish and shrimps. In color it is leaden-gray, slightly ligliter beloNN', and it attains a length of six or seven feet. The Indus species is rather largei-, and the color is paler. In both tlie dorsal is absent. The remaining family of the toothed whales, Physeteeid^, contains only two or three known species, characterized by united cervical vertebras ; teeth in the lower Fig. 102. — Kogia fioicerl, Flower's pigmy sperm whale. jaw only ; ribs united to the breastbone by cartilage ; and a strongly asymmetrical skull. The sperm whale is the best-known example of this family, and will be noticed at greater length. The only other estaljlished species are those belonging to the genera Kogia and Callignathvs. These, like the ziphioid dolphins, inhabit the Indian Ocean and Australian Seas, and are small compared with the huge sperm whale, yet reach a length of twenty feet, and have a sort of spermaceti in the head. Figs. 103 to 105. —Dorsal, lateral, and ventral views of the skull of Callignathus simus. The Sperm Whale, or Cachalot (Phi/seter macrocephaUis)., is not only the largest and best known of the Physeteridffii but the largest existing cetacean outside of the division of whalebone whales. An adult male sometimes attains a length of eighty or even eighty-four feet, and examples seventy feet in length are not uncommon. Very nearly one-third of this great length is occupied by the head, which, as in the bowhcad or Greenland whale, is also the bulkiest part of the whole frame. In shape it is tlie greatest contrast possible to that of the last-mentioned animal. The lower jaw is entirely without the huge development of lip, framing in the baleen, that 192 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. forms the greater lialf of the dejjth in the bowhead, and each ramus or half of the comparatively shallow bone bends inward rapidly, and is united with its fellow in a long and narrow symphysis. What the lower part of the head lacks in size is made Fig. 106. — Lower jaw of sperm whale. up by the u]iper, which forms a huge, almost straight-sided mass, cut off square at the anterior extremity. The lilow-hole, instead of being situated above the eyes, as in the whalebone whales, opens at the truncated end of the head. A furrow runs along the ujiper jaw in the place which is occui^ied l)y the whalebone in the true whales, and into this furrow fit the tips of the twenty-two to twenty-four strong, sharp, conical teeth, that are arranged along each side of the long and narrow Y- shaped lower jaw. There are no teeth in the ui)j)er jaw. The shape of the skull is strangely unlike that of the head, and is formed on nearly the same plan as that of the whalebone whales, except that the nasals, maxillaries, and contiguous bones are very strongly twisted from the sjonmetry usual in mammals, and the maxillaries and frontals are curved upwards in such a sha])e as to form a sort of basin, to which the sailors have given the names of " coach " or " sleigh," as well as the more poeticill one of "Neptune's chair." The whole of the vast overhanging mass of the front part of the head is com])osed entirely of Heshy and fatty matter. Immediately ujion the skull lies a mass of cartilaginous, tough, elastic fat, called by the whalemen "junk." Above the junk, on the right side of the head, is a large sac or cavity, called the "case," which contains oil in a fluid state, together with the granulated substance called spermaceti. As much as fifteen barrels of oil have been obtained from the case. The gape of the cachalot is very wide, as the mouth extends backwards for five- sixths of the length of the liead, and the lower jaw is ca])able of being let down to nearly, or quite, a right angle with the up])er. The tongue has but slight freedom of motion. The throat is much larger than that of a whalebone whale, — indeed it is said to be sufficiently capacious to admit the body of a man. The eye is placed a little above and behind the angle of the month ; and a little further to the rear is the tiny opening of the ear, about a quarter of an inch across. At the junction of the head with the body is a swell known as the "bunch of the neck ; " midway between this and the caudal is a larger bunch, called the " hump," and behind this a .series of smaller ]irominences, known as the " ridge." There is no dorsal. The pectoral, which is situated behind and a little below the eye, is not large, as it seldom exceeds six feet in length by three in width, and the width of the caudal is usually about one-sixth of the total length of the. animal. The spiracle is shaped like the letter S, and in an adult measures ten to twelve inches in length. In color the dorsal portion of the body is lilack or blackish-brown, becoming lighter on the sides and below, and silvery-gray upon the breast. Some individuals are piebald. The oldest males are called " gray-headed," because they are grayish upon the nose. WHALES. 193 Scainmon states that no other cetacean respires with the regularity of an adult male cachalot. As it rises from the depths the hump is first seen, followed by the head? from which issues diagonally a column of vapor, that can be seen from the mast-head to a distance of from three to five miles. The largest bulls, when moving along lei- surely, at a pace of two or three miles an hour, make from sixty to seventy-five respi- rations, occu]iying' in all about twelve minutes. The expiration consumes about three seconds, the inspiration, when moving, only a second ; then the head di])s below, and in about eight seconds more reappears to blow. Occasionally it makes little or no headway while blowing. When the " spoutings are out," it pitches down head-first, turns its flukes high in the air, and descends to a great depth, staying below from fifty minutes to an hour and a quartei'. The smaller and younger males are less regular, spouting some thirty or forty times, and staying below twenty or thirty minutes. In these respects the females behave like the young males. Very different are the motions of the cachalot when alarmed or sporting. In the first case it will sink instantly, even when in nearly a horizontal position ; or if only startled, it will assume a perpendicular posture, with half of the body out of water, to look and listen ; or again, when lying upon the surface, will sweep round with its flukes to ascertain if any object is in reach. When at play it is given to " lob-tailing," that is, to raising its flukes high, and striking them down upon the water with great force. It often goes dov/n a few fathoms, and then shoots out bodily and falls on its side with a heavy splash. The cachalot is seldom infested with parasitic Crustacea, but the whalers say that some of its oddest antics are really attempts to rid itself of the " suck-fish," or remora. This huge cetacean lives in every ocean not icy, and full-grown individuals have been taken as far as 56° S. Lat., and 56° 12' N. Lat. Yet it abounds far more in the broad, connected waters of the Southern Ocean than in the comparatively shut off basins of the North Atlantic and North Pacific. The schools, which may contain from fifteen up to hundreds of individuals, usually consist of both males and females, two or three large bulls leading the van. Yet the oldest and largest males roam alone for the greater part of the year, or occasionally form herds by themselves. The females exhibit much affection for their young, assist- ing it to escape by partly supporting it upon the flipper. They also show great sym- pathy for each other, and stay by their wounded companions, thus giving the whalers the 0]iportunity to ca])ture several. The young bulls go in herds, but when one is wounded the others swim off. Occasionally a male cachalot, when harpooned, will lie as if jjaralyzed, giving the man a chance to finish him with the lance ; but more frequently he makes a desperate sti-uggle, and often escapes. Ships have, on various occasions, been sunk by infuriated male cachalots. The "Essex," in 1820, was struck twice, and went down in ten min- utes after the second attack. In 1851 the "Ann Alexander" was similarly sunk off Peru. The boats ai'e frequently attacked, and sometimes boat after boat has been demolished by a wise old whale, who, instead of wasting his strength and blood by dragging several hundred fathoms of line beneath a weight of water, has remained upon the sui'face and fought his pursuers. Captain Scammon states his conviction " that many vessels which have sailed from port and never been heard of after have suffered wreck through cachalots." Although the exact manner of feeding piracticed by the cachalot when in the VOL. V. — 13 194 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAiMiMALS. depths is not known, yet from its habits upon the surface, from the rapidity witli which it can ojjen and close its huge mouth, throwing its lower jaw to a right angle with the upper, and swaying it from side to side at a wide angle, it is believed to swim with its lower jaw hanging down till it comes in contact with the prey. Its food is known to consist of cephalojijods, or squids, cuttle-fishes, and octopi, large and small. The beaks of these creatures are often found in the intestinal canal, and it is from remains found within the sperm whale that the existence of giant cuttle-fishes — the kraken of the Norsemen — was first proved. Upon the surface of the water the cachalot Fig. 107. — Physcter macroccphaliis, cachalot, sperm whale. is compelled to turn over in order to grasp a large ol)ject, but Scammon believes this is not necessary when below. The female cachalot is very much smaller than the male, not above one-third or one-fourth of his bulk, and is of a more slender form. She is suiiposed to go with young about ten months, and occasionally bears twins. It is a singular fact that the epidermis of this whale becomes thhiner with age. In the young it is half an inch thick, while in old individuals the furrowed skin is only half that thickness. The substance known as ambergris, used in Europe and America in the preparation of scented pastilles, candles, b.alls, gloves, hair-powder, pomades, and other things in which a strong scent is desired, is nothing more than the detained anal concretion of a diseased whale, and is, therefore, composed of the refuse matter of the cephalopods WHA LES. 195 that form its food. It is usually found in lumps, floating on the sea, and many curious theories were formerly jirojiounded as to its origin. The classification of the toothed whales is not settled. Professor Flower places the two-toothed Ziphiidre with the Physetcridie ; and remarks that the groups formed by Orca, Granqyus, beluga, and 3fonodon are much less distinct than the Platanistidaa and Physeteridie. The OrcadiB and Belugidse may be, therefore, considered as sub- families of the Delphinidas. Sub-Order II. — BALiENoroEA. In this sub-order the nasal chambers communicate with the atmosphere by two openings, which are called blow-holes, or spiracles, and are placed upon the liighest part of the head. The passages leading downwards from these apertures to those in the nasal bones below are devoid of the nasal sacs which in the dolphins are found between the skin and the skull, but can be opened and closed at the will of the animal. None of the ribs have a perfect articulation with the bodies of the vertebra, but are joined to them by ligament, or not at all, so that their chief connection is with the transverse processes. The first rib is the only one which is attached to the breastbone, and thus all the others are false or " floating " ribs. The skull is very large, compared with the body, and does not present so conspicu- ous a lack of symmetry as that of the dolphins. The upjjer jaw is very long and narrow, but the rami of the lower jaw arch broadly outwards, enclosing a space of considerable width on each side of the narrowed cranium, which forms more or less of an arch. The usual number of young is one at a birth, and the period of gestation appears to be about a yeaj-. The whalebone whales are sharply marked off from the rest of the order by the absolutely edentate condition of their jaws. Yet teeth are present at an early stage of development, though they disappear before the end of foetal life, leaving their place to be supplied by the singular array of parallel plates of " baleen " or " \\halebone," about the nature of which there has been much controversy, though there can be none about its use, either to the whale or to its pei-secutor, man, who for the sake of this useful apparatus destroys its possessor. Probably the nearest approach to a similar structure to be found among Mammalia is, as suggested by Professor Turner, that exhil>ited by the transverse vascular folds of mucous membrane, covered by ejaitheUum, that cross the palate of the ruminants. If we suppose the epithelial membrane to become horny, as is the case with so many ojiithelial coverings, to bind together the papilla3 of each fold, and to lengthen downwards, we should have horny plates that in position and structure would be baleen. The whalebone whales have olfactory nerves, and a small olfactory organ. The Balaenoidea fall into two families, the Balaenopteridfe and the BahTuidse. The BALiExoPTEEiDiE, or rorquals, all have a head of moderate size ; an elongate, fusiform body ; short and broad baleen ; four digits only ; a radius and ulna exceeding the humerus in length ; and cervical vertebris which are not all united together. In most cases a dorsal is jjrcsent, and the throat and anterior part of the belly is usually thrown into longitudinal plaits. To this tribe belong, beside the true fin-backs, the 196 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. scrag whale {Agelaphus gibhosus) of the North Atlantic, a species with whitish ba- leen, and without a dorsal, attaining, perhaps, some fifty feet in length, and the hump- back and California gray whales. Dr. Gray enumerates seven sj^ecies of Merjaptera, or humpback : one from Japan, another fi'om New Zealand, and three from the eastern coast of North America, besides Megaptera longimana of the North Seas, and M. versabilis of the Pacific. The same naturalist enumerates sixteen species of fin-backs. The California Gray Whale, Rhachkinectes glaucus, frequents the western shores of the United States from October to May, and during the winter, from December to March, the females enter the lagoons upon the coast of Lower California to bring forth their young, the males in the meantime remaining outside. At the end of the season the males occasionally enter the lagoons, and soon after both sexes, with their young, Fig. lOS. — Balsena cisarctlca, skuU showing baleen or wlialeboue in position. commence their northward migration, keeping so near the shore that they often pass through the line of kelp that fringes the beach. In the summer they are to be found in the Arctic Ocean and Sea of Okhotsk. " In this habit of resorting to shoal bays they differ widely from other whales. In October and November, as well as in the autunm, these whales are passing southwards or northwards along the coasts of California and Oregon, and it is during these seasons that they fall a prey to the whalemen of the vari- ous stations located along these coasts, at Half-moon Bay, Monterey Baj-, Port Hai-- ford, Point Conception, and other points. In size this whale is inferior to the right whales, as the male, \\hich varies more in size than the female, measures from thirty-five to forty-two feet in length, and the female averages forty. The average yield of oil is from twenty to twenty-five barrels ; but individuals of larger size, measuring above forty-four feet in length, and yielding sixty to seventy barrels of oil, have occasionally been met with. In color the Califor- nia gray whale is of a mottled gray, of varying depth, sometimes approaching black. •a WHALES. 197 Tlie line of the mouth-oi)ening bends downwards, so that the profile of the ujiper surface of the head is highlj- convex. Under the throat are two longitudinal folds, about fifteen inches apart and six feet long. The baleen is short, and of a light color, so that it is of little value — the longest blades, out of a hundred and eighty-three in each upper jaw of a male forty-two feet long, were only eighteen inches in length. Its ;nost southern habitat on the American coast appxjars to be 20° north, but its range on the Asiatic coast is not known, although it is reported to occur along the coast of China. Captain Scannnon believes that the female pi'opagates only once in two years. The shore-whaling fisheries, for the capture of this whale as it passed upward or downward along the coast, were established in 1851, and it has been estimated that for several seasons after this the number of whales that passed southward daily from the 15tli of December to the 1st of February was at least a thousand, or about 47,000 in all, without reckoning those which were out of sight of land. But the sagacious whales have now not only learned to keep at a distance from a whaleboat, but to keep much further out to sea, and Captain Scamnion estimates the number now annually passing along the coast at only eiglit to ten thousand in the same time. The shores are strewn with its jaws, vertebra, and ribs, and it is to be feared that ere long it may become extinct. The gray whale has received many curious titles, such as " hard-head," " mussel- digger," " devil-fisb," and "gray-back." The first name refers to its propensity to upset the boats of the whalers with its head, the second to its habit of descending to the soft bottoms, whence it returns with head and lips besmeared with ooze. Captain Scammon believes that mussels have been found in the stomach of this whale, but states that those taken in the lagoons (during the breeding season) contained only vegetable remains. The mothers show the greatest affection for theii- young, and appear, while their cubs are young and tender, to seek the shallowest inland waters, in wliich they can barely float. The gray whale shows a greater power of resistance and tenacity of life than most other baleen whales, and its cajiture is frequently attended with loss of life, both to white and red-skinned whalers. When sporting, these wliales raise their huge forms half out of the water, and fall over heavily on their sides, — in the breakers, turning o\'er and over after the manner of seals, — or spring clear out of the water in the wildness of their fun. The Califor- nia gray is infested with a small crustacean of the genus Cyamus (Anglice, " whale- louse "), about three-quarters of an inch long. This occurs in vast numbers, and the species ( C. scammoni) appears to be peculiar to this whale. Another parasite is a flat barnacle, about an inch and two-thirds across ( Cryptolepas rhachianecti). Several species of humi)liack whales have been described from peculiarities in the osseous structure ; but the hal)its and general ai)pearance of all are so similar that, in the want of any sufficient evidence to the contrary, it is best to consider all those of the northern hemisphere as belonging to but one species, Megapteni versahiUs. The form of the humpback has none of the sj-mmetry of that of the California gray ; the body is short and thick, the profile of the head concave from blow-holes to snout, the lower jaw round and projecting, the pectorals and flukes greatly developed, and the outline of the back broken by a protuberance of varying size and shape, placed about one-fourth the length from the tail-fin. Another lump under the lower jaw, and a number of small ones on the top of the head joined with the bunches of pendent bar- nacles and the eccentric shape, make one of the ugliest of mammals. 198 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. The sexes do not differ much in size, but both vary considerably. Full-grown individuals usually measure from forty-eight to fifty-two feet in length, but the largest taken at Tongataboo (one of the Friendly Islands), in 1871, produced seventy-three barrels of oil, and was judged to be seventy-five feet long. The flipper of an individual forty-eight feet long measured thirteen feet, and the flukes were eighteen feet from tip to tijj. The whalebone is of poor quality, and the longest laminre do not exceed two feet nine inches in length. The skull of an animal of this size would be about fifteen feet in length, the lower jaw about the same, and the largest ribs from nine to twelve feet long on the curve. The usual color is black, mottled slightly with white or gray on the lower surface, but some are j^ure white vmder the fins and about the abdomen, and the posterior edge of the hump is often tipj^ed with pure white. This whale is much infested by parasites, consisting of large sessile barnacles or Coronuke, sometimes fully three inches across, and a "whale-louse," Cyamus suf- fusus, which occurs in great abundance about the head and pectoral fins, especially in young individuals. The largest barnacles are found on the throat and on the flippers, and attached to them, at least in the humpbacks of the Pacific Ocean, are long pen- dent barnacles of another species. Thougli the humpback is found in every sea and ocean at different seasons, and of various stages of growth, observations tend to show that it resorts periodically, and, to some extent, regularly, to certain localities, especially lagoons and inland waters, where the female brings forth her young ; and it appears that large numbers of both sexes make a sort of general migration from warmer to colder latitudes as the sumiuer approaches, and back again toward winter. The irregular course of this whale, and the frequency with which it rounds or rolls, and " turns flukes " in its descent, render it distinguishable at a long distance. The number of respirations it makes on coming to the surface varies from one to as many as fifteen or twenty. During the mating season the antics of these huge beasts are most amusing. As they lie side by side they administer to each other alternate blows with their long flippers. These love-pats may be heard for miles ; and Captain Scammon belie\'es that they have been the origin of the stories current respecting the attack of the whale by the thrasher shark, — a creature incapable of inflicting damage upon such an oppo- nent. These caresses are varied by gambols, the immense creatures "breaching" or springing clear out of the water in their ponderous sport. Wliile the calf suckles, the mother reclines rather on one side, raising the posterior pait of the body nearly out of water. This appears to be the manner of all whale- bone whales, and permits two calves to suckle at once. The calves are to be found in the same school or " gam " with the adults. Individuals of the same school differ greatly in the size of both pectorals and caudal. The latter is scolloped along its posterior edge in some, while the former ranges from its normal long, narrow, and pointed shn])0 to short and broad. Beneath the throat of the humpback are from twenty-one to twenty-six folds, each from four to six inches wide ; some of these cross each other or terminate near the pectorals, while others extend farther back. These gular folds, found in this and other rorquals, are supposed by their expansion and contraction to allow the stomach to dilate or contract according to its contents. The Sulphur-bottom, Sibhaklius sulfureus, is unquestionably the largest of the entire class, the hugest of existing mammals, and probably the superior in size of WHALES. 199 every other creature, living or extinct, that has ever breathed upon the surface of the o-lobe. On account of its great strength and the rapidity of its naotions, as well as of its comparative worthlessness as a producer of oil and baleen, the sulphur-bottom has but seldom fallen into the hands of whalers, and accurate measurements are not easy to obtain. Captain Scamraon gives the following particulars of one individual: Length, 95 feet; length of jawbone, 21 feet; length of longest baleen, 4 feet ; girth, 39 feet ; weight of baleen, 800 pounds; yield of oil, 110 barrels; weight of the whole animal (calculated), 147 tons. Its body is slender, and the pectorals small, short, and rounded at the end, much resembling those of the sperm whale. It has a dorsal fin, situated farther back, and comparatively smaller than in the genus Bahinojjhni. The color of the upper surfaces is light-blackish, sometimes light-brown or almost wliitc, while the under parts are of a yellowish or sulphur tint. Numerous longitudi- nal folds occupy the anterior part of the lower surface. The baleen is very broad at its base, and of a jet black or bluish tint. The enormous size and weight of a sulphur-bottoni whale may be understood from the fact that in the attempt to roll upon the beach an individual ninety-two feet long that had been taken at Monterey, the capstan, which had lifted many a large whale, was torn up, the falls parted, and the body fell back into the water, where the whale- men were content to leave it, cutting off only that part of the blubber which was above the surface. An individual eighty-five feet long yielded ninety barrels of oil. The introduction of the bomb-gun occasionally enables the whalemen to slaughter, though not always to obtain possession of, these magnificent animals. The sulphur-bottom is found at all seasons on the coast of Upper and Lower California, and from the beginning of May to the end of September often occurs in large numbers close in-shore. It often follows ships, though it does not play about them so boldly as the fin-back does. A sulphur-bottom whale followed the ship "Plymouth" for twenty-four days during her voyage from San Francisco to Realejo, Central America, keeping near and often passing underneath the keel. Various methods were resorted to at first to induce him to leave ; gentle persuasion in the shape of rifle-shots, billets of wood, and bottles were wasted on him, breaking liis skin, but not causing him to part com]iany. Finally, as he did no damage and apparently had no intention of doing any, he was allowed to stay, and remained till the water grew too shoal for his taste. The white paint of the ship was badly stained by the impurities of his breath, and his back was nuu'li scratched from contact with the shi])'s coppering, as well as sore from bullet-wounds. The suli)luir-bottom rarely "bolts," as the whalemen term the action of leaping out of the Avater diagonally, or " breaclies," as a more perpendicular spring is called, but the sight he presents when he does indulge in such tremendous sport is one not to be readily forgotten. From the description and figure given by Professor Turner of the Silver-bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, it must be very nearly allied to the sulphur-bottom of the Pacific. The silver-bottom has, on A-arious occasions, been stranded upon the coast of Great Britain. A female, about seventy-nine feet long, that was examined a few years ago by Professor Turner, was found to possess three hundred and seventy baleen-plates on each side of the mouth, the largest of which measured one and a half feet in width at the base, yet fell short of three feet in length. The skin, which was of a steel-gray tint on the upper parts, and silvery lielow, was everywhere delicate when compared with that of the Greenland whale, as it did not exceed one-fifth of an inch in thickness. Some idea of the vast size of the creature may be derived from comparing it with 200 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. those of the full-grown fostus contained within it. The latter was nineteen and a half feet long, or twice the length of a large ox, yet four such babies, placed end to end, would scarcely equal the mother in length. The niaminw of the adult extended along nearly eight feet of the ventral surface. The Razor-back, Balcenoptera musculus, is one of the largest of whales, the silver bottom and sulphur-bottom alone exceeding it in length. From these it differs in having a more pointed beak, rapidly contracting to its tip instead of curving gently ; flippers that are shorter relatively to the size of the body; shorter and narrower baleen, Fig. 109. — BalcEiwptcra 7>mscnliis, luzor-b^ick whale. of a slate color or striped with yellow, white, or brown, instead of rich deep black; and, finally, in its smaller size. Large examples attain upwards of sixty-seven feet, but it is doubtful if it ever exceeds seventy feet. In color it is black above and white beneath. The blubber is not so thick as that of the silver-bottom, so that it yields a much less quantity of oil, and the vertebr;e are sixty-one in number, against sixty-four in the former species. The razor-back is an Atlantic sjjecies, and occasionally wan- ders into the comparatively shallow channel that divides England from France. The Atlantic and Pacific are inhabited, respectively, by £. rostmta and B. davidsoni, two fin-back whales of small size, not exceeding twenty-five to thirty feet in length. The Pacific representative of the razor-back is Ji. vellfcra, which yi(>lds in swift- ness to the sulphur-bottom only, and is black or l)lackish-brown above ami milky-white WHALES. 201 below. It reaches a length of sixty feet or more, and the width across flukes is about one-fourth of tlie total length. The Bal^nid^ are distinguished from the fin-whales and their allies by the immense size of the head, the absence of a dorsal, and of folds upon the tliroat ; the shortness and stoutness of the arm-bones ; the co-ossification of all the vertebrje of the neck into a single bone ; and the length and slenderness of the baleen. Gray enumerates fourteen species. The Bowhead, Balmna mysticetu.% so called from the great size and rounded outline of the head, — as its other names, the Greenland whale, polar whale, are derived from the arctic realms, which it inhabits, — is the species which has been longest and most per- sistently hunted on the coasts of northern America, Europe, and Asia, and is, individu- ally and collectively, by far the most valuable to man of all the Cetacea. Though not the largest of the order, — since it rarely attains a length of sixty-five feet, and fifty feet is rather over the average, — it surpasses every other species both in quantity of oil and length, quantity, and quality of whalebone, — a large example yielding two hundred and seventy-five barrels of the former and a ton and three-quarters of the latter. On account of the great convexity of both the upper and the lower jaws, the space between them gives room in the central portion of its length for plates of baleen sometimes exceeding fourteen feet in length. The total number of plates on each side of each jaw varies from three hundred and thirty to three hundred and seventy. The largest plates have a width of a foot or more, and the fringe of free fibres along their margin is from one to two feet long. The blubber of an animal forty-seven feet long averaged eleven inches in thickness, and reached sixteen inches where thickest ; the blow-holes of the same individual were a foot in length; the black skin upon the back an inch in thickness, and the "flukes" or lobes of the tail nineteen feet in extent. In form the Greenland whale is the most ungraceful of mammals. Short and thick, with a head fully one-third of the total length, and exceeding in height and thickness any part of the body, a huge mouth of curved outline extending far behind the blow-holes, little pig-like eyes, and short, heavy pectorals, it ]iresents a picture of inigainliness that it would be difficult to surpass. Small though the eyes are, they are really four times the size of those of an ox. Tiiey are placed a foot behind the end of the huge mouth. The opening of the ears is not above a quarter of an inch across, and is often so small that it is diflicult to find. The smaller and middle-sized bowheads are black, but the very largest and oldest are of a bi'own coloi-. All have more or less white upon the under parts, especially about the throat and fins. This whale is comparatively free from parasitic Crustacea, but a few Cyami, of a species distinct from that of the humpback, California gray, or £. sieboldii occur on the head and fins. In pursuit of its prey, which consists of the minute Crustacea and surface molluscs, principally Pteropoda, that swarm in the Arctic Seas, the mysticetus swims with open mouth at or near the surface until a sufficient quantity of food has been gathered to make a mouthful for a gullet that is not, spite of the creature's size, more than about two inches across. It then elevates its head, allows the water to escape between the fringes of the baleen, and, probably, by the action of the huge mass of fat and flesh that constitutes its tongue, gathers the particles together, and propels them toward its oesophagus. Millions of living beings, each so small that a microscope is needed to 202 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. make out its structure, go to form a single swallow ; yet some idea of tlie countless bil- lions of the tiny Entomostraca may be conceived if we remember that they are suffi- cient to sustain, without diminution in numbers, the hosts of mighty rmjsticcti, as well as myriads of fishes. When the whale descends below the surface its stay is usually from ten to twenty minutes, and it needs from one and a half to two and a half min- utes to oxygenate its blood upon its return. During this interval it spouts from six to nine times. What depth it is capable of descending to is not known, as it is usually taken in water of from fifty to a hundred fathoms in depth. Individuals have been known to take out a mile of rope when struck, but as the rope continues to run during the return as well as during the descent the depth can only be guessed at. When the bottom is soft, a stricken whale has been known to stay an hour below the surface, and one struck by the crew of Captain Comstock stayed down an hour and twent\- minutes, returning covered with mud, and so exhausted that a single lance-thrust finished it. Like the humpback, the bowhead is irregular in its movements, and in the periods of time which it spends below and above water. When it moves along the surface, only two portions are visible ; these are the protuberance on the top of the head, cro^vned by the blow-holes, and in advance of the eyes ; and the swell of the back midway between this and the tail. This species is truly an "ice-whale," having its home and feeding-grounds among the floes and fields of the arctic regions, and never venturing in summer south of the districts where ice-fields form in the winter ; that is, in the Pacific Ocean, 5-1° to 55° N. latitude. The breeding-places of the bowhead are not certainly known, except that the vicinity of Tchantar Bay, in the Okhotsk Sea, is known to be one. Probably the remote line of open water beyond Point Barrow, on the northern shore of North America, is the breeding-ground both of the this species and of the rorquals. In the Okhotsk Sea some smaller whales, called "poggies," and believed by Scammon to be the partially-grown young of this species, are found. A variety of the bowhead has upon the tapering hinder part of the body or " small " a bunch or hump some two or three feet long and six inches high, a diminu- tive representative of the dorsal fin of the rorquals. These " bunch-backs " are said to yield more baleen proportionally to the oil than other whales. The Right Whale of the Northwest, B. sieboldii, very much resembles the polar whale, but can be distinguished from it at a glance by the invariable presence upon the end of the upper jaw of a large, rough wart-like protuberance, known as the "bonnet." The upper surface of the head is less convex than in the polar whale, and is more or less corrugated transversely, while both lips and head ha\e some smaller wai-t-like bunches. These rough surfaces are often infested with parasitic Crustacea. The length of an adult is about sixty feet, — occasionally it reaches seventy, — and there is but little difference in size between the sexes. The usual color is black, but many have more or less white about the throat and pectorals, and some are pied all over. In former times this whale ranged southward to Oregon, and stragglers were taken on the Calif ornian coast, and even as far south as Cerros Island, in 29° north latitude ; but their chief resort on the American coast was the " Kodiak ground," or the area from Vancouver's Island to the Aleutians, and westward to 150° west longitude. They congregate abundantly in the southern part of Behring Sea and in the Sea of Okhotsk. The baleen is large, but shorter, coarser, and less flexible than that of the bowhead. The average product of oil is about a hundred and thirty barrels, but some I 'J WHALES. 203 have yielded as much as two hundred and eiglity. The weight of baleen is from a thousand to fifteen hundred pounds. On account of variations in the form and structure of the shoulder-blades, ear-bones, cervical vertebra, and ribs, the old genus Baki'iui has been divided into several genera. How many species there may be is not yet definitely known, nor, in view of the great rano-e of individual difference in the skeletal structure, can the genera be considered well established, though the species resting on form, size, color, habits, and habitat may be considered as having become distinct. Among these whales is the New Zealand Right Whale {B. australiensis), the Biscay Whale (B. cisarctica), once so persistently per- secuted by the Biscayan whalers, Macleay's Whale, another southern species, the Cape Whale (B. antipodarum), still chased in the waters around South Africa, and B. australis and B. temmincJcii, both from the southern seas. Ji FIG. 110. — BaUcna clsarciica, Biscay whale. The species of whale which is not uncommon on the northeast coast of this country, and is even now occasionally seen in New York harbor, the Delaware River, and upon the coast of Maryland, is, accordnig to Cope, identical with the Biscay whale. The skeleton of a half-grown individual, thirty-one and a half feet long, occupies a promi- nent jilace in the museum of the Philadelphia Academy of Sciences. William Penn, in a letter dated 1683, states that eleven were taken in that year at the mouth of the Delaware, so that at that time they must have been tolerably abundant ; indeed, it is almost certain that the whale pursued by the fishermen of New England, in early days, was this sjiecies. Bahinui cisarctica has now, thanks to the respite afforded it, increased in numbers sufficiently to become again an object of chase to a certain extent. To this group belongs also the Pigmy Right Whale {Neobalmna marginata), or Scrag Whale, of New Zealand and Western Australi.a, an animal which does not exceed fifteen or sixteen feet long, and has whalebone of the most elastic, flexible, and tough char- acter of any living species. Sub-Order III. — Phocodontia. The Phocodontia are a singular group of mammals of the tertiary epoch, comprising the genera Zeuglodon, Squalodon, and Phocodon. In some respects they appear to unite the Cetacea with the aquatic Carnivora and the Sirenia. Tlie vertebrse of the neck are separate, as in ordinary mammals, while those of the caudal region have their transverse processes perforated, as is the case in many Cetacea. The skull is symmetrical ; the nasal bones, tliough short, are longer than in any living cetacean ; 204 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. tlie zygomatic arches are large and thick ; and tlie ujiper portions of the frontals are expanded. The molar teeth are like those of many seals, having laterally compressed crowns with serrated edges, and two fangs. The first specimen of this group was obtained in the miocene of Malta as early as 1747, and since that period various species have been discovered in this country, in France, England, Holland, Italy, etc. The skeleton of Zeuylodon, from the miocene of Alabama, is about seventy feet long, and has a very long and narrow skull. The molars are two-lobed. Some of its teeth have vertical successors, — a character which does not occur in other Cetacea. In Squalodon, a species of which is found in New Jersey, the molars have numerous cusps, and greatly resemble the teeth of some sharks. THE WHALE FISHERY. In ordinary conversation and whalers' parlance the pursuit and capture of the whale is always spoken of as a fishery, and it appears unlikely tliat the spread of correct knowledge will correct the name. It is im230ssible to say when the whale was first successfully chased by man ; for Indians, Eskimos, and other aborigines have chased it for ages, with the same primitive appliances that they still use, and the Japanese and Tartars, as far back as we have information respecting them,' pursued the whale in large boats. That the Norwegians engaged early in this fishery we have the authority of "Oh- there, the old sea-captain," a Fleming, who, in a. d. 887, sailed along the Norwegian coast, to use his own words to Alfred the Great, " as far north as whale-hunters used to travel." But all these peoples, tliough they engaged in the chase of the whale, do not appear to have ever made of it a regular commercial pursuit. The weiglit of authority gives to the Biscayans the credit of being the first people who engaged in the business extensively in order to profit by the sale of the oil, baleen, etc. In the thirteenth and two following centuries the natives of Gascony and the Basque Provinces had numerous vessels employed in the Bay of Biscay and adjoining waters, where whales were at that time abundant. The ports of Biarritz, Cibourre, Rochelle, and others, to which whaling seems now quite foreign, were then the centre of a busy trade in whale's tongues (then thought a great delicacy), oil, and baleen, which then, as until very recently, was used to stiffen the framework fashion has thrown around the female form. The fishery of the Biscayans came to an end, as has that of some other nations, from want of whales ; and as the Biscayans were not sufficiently adventurous to go further north, except as sailors in the employ of other peoples, the leading part in this game of slaughtei- fell to the share of the Dutch, to whom, -when the polar seas were parcelled out in districts between the Muscovy Comjiany (English), the Dutch, French, etc., Spitzbergen and the neigboring waters were allotted. Upon the shores of this desolate island, far wdthin the Arctic circle, the important settle- ment of Smeerenberg sprang into existence. Bowheads abounded in the adjacent ocean, and the most convenient system was found to be to "try" or melt the blubber on shore. The trying-houses were at Smeerenberg, which was founded at the same time with Batavia, and was then of at least equal importance. Not only were boilers, tanks, and all necessary ajiparatus to be found here, but buildings of vari- ous kinds, houses, inns, sho]is, etc., — all made in Holland. The whale-ships were attended by provision-ships, and tlie sailors could even enjoy "hot rolls for breakfast." WHALES. fJ05 But whales became scarce, the scene of the fisliery shifted to East Greenland, whither the persecuted animals had retired, and Smeerenberg ceased to be ; for the blubber was sent direct to Holland. In 1680 the Dutch had two hundred and sixty ships and four- teen thousand sailors engaged in the pursuit. Next to the Dutch the English were the most prominent of European nations in the whale-fishery, but a new competitor entered in the race, and soon distanced all others. The chase of the whale was among the first pursuits of the colonists of New York and Delaware, and was at the same time carried on by the New Englandcrs. In the seventeenth century the whaling was done in boats sent from the shore, as is now practised in California ; for the huge game had not yet grown timid. At Nantucket a tall spar was erected, up which a man climbed to watch for whales, and the captured prize was towed ashore and " tryed." About the middle of the eighteenth century the whales, driven away from the shore, were pursued seawards in sloops and schooners of about fifty tons, with a crew of thirteen men and two boys. Earlier in the century sloops from Nantucket, with two boats and twelve or thirteen men, many of whom were Indians, ventured to New- foundland and the Gulf Stream, and about 1750 the distant fisliery was prosecuted with vessels of as much as 130 tons. New Bedford, destined to become the metropolis of the American whale-fishery, entered upon the business about 1755. In 1765 Boston had a hundred small vessels. Between 1771 and 1775 there were employed in the northern whale-fishery 183 ships, with a tonnage of 13,820, and 121 vessels, of 14,020 tons, in the southern whale- fishery. Scammon gi\'es an engraving, from a picture by W. H. Wall, of a whaling scene at New Bedford in 1763. To the right are the sheds containing the trying-pots, with a pair of whale's jaws upon the roof; on the right foreground is a man pouring oil from a ladle into a barrel, while near him anotlier is handling the lumps of blul)ber; nearer the centre is a group consisting of an Indian and two white men, one of whom has stojjped in his task of coopering a barrel in order to converse with the Indian ; farther to tlie left the veteran founder of the New Bedford whale-fishery, John Russell, attired in full Quaker costume, is giving directions to the negro servant, who holds his horse, and in the background are seen the sled used for transjiort and the whaling-bark, which is drawn up high upon the beach. Towards the last quarter of the eighteenth century larger vessels were employed, and voyages were made across the equator. The Brazil Banks and the Cape Verde Islands, the West Indies, and the Gulf of Mexico were traversed for cachalots, humpbacks, etc., and the fishery was assuming large proportions when the breaking out of the Revolutionary War entirely ])aralyzcd it. At this ejjoch many Nantucket whalemen transferred their interests to England, and some even to France. The first whale-ship that ventured into the Pacific was sent from England in 1787, and was manned by Nantucket men. In 1791 six vessels, and in 1820 a hundred, chased the cachalots in the newly-discovered grounds off Cliili and Peru as far as the Galapagos, and between 5° and 10° south latitude and 105° and 125° west longitude. In 1828 four shijjs were sent to the eastern coast of Africa, and one of these penetrated into the Red Sea. The " Kodiak Ground," in the vast bend of the Alaskan coast, which deflects the Karo Siwo southward, was disco^■ered in 1835. In 1839 the American whale-fishery had more than recovered from its temporary decline, and boasted of a fleet of 557 206 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. vessels. In 1842 tliis number had increased to 652, while at the same date the total number of foreign vessels engaged in the same business was only 230. In 1846 seventy thousand people lived, directly or mdirectly, upon the receipts of this industry ; the value of tlie vessels engaged in it was above twenty-one millions of dollars, and the investments of every kind reached a total of seventy millions. At this date the whaling fleet consisted of 678 ships and barks, 35 brigs, and 22 schooners, — 233,189 tons in all. Soon after this date the fisliery began to decline, and is now, even with the addition of the few ships owned in San Francisco, far less unportant than formerly. The ships now employed are from three to five hundred tons, and are, when pre- pared for a three years' voyage, worth from thirty to sixty thousand dollars. Such vessels lower four boats with five oars each, have two or three boats in reserve, are furnished with patent purchase windlass for raising the blubber, and have try-works with portable pipes which carry the smoke clear of the decks, thus getting rid of the grime and soot which formerly disfigured the shiji. Over a thousand separate articles are required to complete the outfit of a whaling-ship. The entire company of a four- boat whaler consists of thirty-five persons at least, namely: cajjtain, four mates, a cooper, a carpenter, a steward, four boat-steerers, a cook, and twenty-two men and boys. All are shipped "on a lay" ; that is, on a share of the profits. The crew of each boat consists of a mate, who is the " boat-lieader," a boat^steerer, and fovir men, who are selected for strength and endin-ance. Tlie rest of the crew, who remain in the sliip, are calle tain himself, who now usually takes no part in the active chase of the game. A modern whaleboat is twenty-eight to tliirty feet in length, and six feet in width ; is sharj) at both ends, has sloping sides, and is an excellent sea-boat. At the bow is a groove, called the chocks, in which is jjlaced a metal sheave for the line to run in. The line is kept in the groove by a pin of tough wood or baleen that passes through holes above the line. The boat carries a supply of these pins. Three feet from the stern is the " clumsy-cleat," a short thwart with a rounded notch behind, against which the boat-steerer braces himself by one leg when a rough sea or a whale makes it necessary. A sort of a deck, six inches below the gunwale, on which tlie first portion of tlie line is coiled, is called tlie box. Five thwarts cross the boat, and opjiosite each rowlock, near the bottom of the boat, is a cleat which receives the handle of the oai-, raising the blade high from the water when the crew are resting or when fast to a whale. Four feet of the stern are decked over, and through this, but a little to one side, projects the " loggerhead," a post with a large head, around which the line is passed. The total number of articles needed in a whaleboat is forty-eight, including oars, paddles, rowlocks, five harpoons, one or two tubs to Iiold the line, a mast and jard or sprit, one to three sails, three hand-lances, three short warps or coils of rojie, a boat spade, three lance-war23S (to secure the lances), one boat-warp, a boat-hatcliet, two boal^knives, one boat-waif or flag, a compass, a boat-hook, a drag, a grapnel, an anclior, a sweeping-line, with its lead and buoy, etc., a boat-log, a boat-bucket, a boat-crotch for support of harpoons when ready for use, six chock-pins, a roll of canvas, two nippers, a bomb-gun, and four bomb-lances. To these is sometimes added a Gruner's harpoon gun, which is quite successful in a smooth sea, projecting a liarpoon four and a half feet long to a distance of eighty-four yards. It is fired by the boat-header. The nippers are made of several layers of canvas stitched together, and are used for holding on to the line when it is running out too swiftly ; and the bomb-gun, with its lances, is WHALES. 207 em]iloyed to kill the whale when beyond the reach of the hand-lance. It will do good Vtovk up to twenty-five yards. While engaged in whaling, all hands breakfast at sunrise, and watches are set at each masthead, and relieved every two hours, as is the man at the wheel. If no whales are seen, the watclies are called in at sunset, and a night-watch set ; but if whales have been captured the hours are regulated by the work. When a whale is seen spouting, the cry is, " There she blows ! " When the watch at the masthead sees the whale spring from the water, he cries, " There she breaches ! " When he sees the tail disappear in a downward plunge, he shouts, " There goes flukes ! " Then comes the question, " Where away?" and the answer, "Right ahead ! " or, "On the beam ! " and at once the chase is entered ujion. The boats are lowered, the line from the line-tub is passed round the loggerhead, then forward o\'er the oars, and a few fathoms are coiled up on the box of the boat. Two harpoons are placed in the head of the boat, their staves resting on the boat-crotch, and the liox-warj) is made fast to one of them, while the second is connected to the main line by a short warp or line. The lances are laid on the starboard side of the bo\v, the boat-sjiade opjtosite, the boat^hatchet and a knife ready — the other knife in the stern. The oflicer in charge sits in the stern and steers, while the boat-steerer pulls the first oar. The whale is approached cautiously, in order not to alarm or "gaily" him; the paddles are used whenever it is sufiiciently calm, but oars are resorted to when necessary. When about three fathoms from the whale the boat-steerer, who is also the harpooner, is ordered to " stand up." Instantly he springs to his feet, seizes the harpoon, darts it into the whale, and, if possible, throws the second harpoon before the creature is out of reach. The moment the whale is struck the order, " Stern all! " is given, and the oarsmen strain every muscle to back away from the animal, to avoid being staved in by a blow of its tail as it swings' it around in its agony. In spite of all their efforts the boat is often injured, and if the injury is serious the line is cut, or let go with a drag or buoy attached. The nearest boat then continues the pursuit, while the next one pulls for the disabled boat and rescues the crew. The moment the whale is fast the boat-steerer changes ends with the boat^header and steers, while the officer attends to killing the whale. If the whale " runs," or keeps upon the surface, every effort is made to get near enough to shoot a bomb or to use the hand-lance; but if it descends, or " sounds," the line is helil on to with the nippers, and slacked as slowly as possible. Occasionally the bows are dragged under water by the force of the descent, and sometimes all the available line is taken out almost on the instant, so that it has to be cut to prevent being drawn down, and the whale escapes. At other times the whale " brings to," or remains quiet, so that the boat may be pulled within bomb range. Each oarsman has his especial place and duties. The " bowman," who is only really bowman after the whale is struck, has to attend to the line as it passes him; the " midship-oarsman " pulls the longest oar ; the " tub-oarsman " has to see that the line runs clear from the tub ; and the " after-oarsman," who is the lightest of the crew, attends to the line as it is hauled in, and bails the boat. Some ships use Pierce's har- poon bomb-lance gun. This consists of a gun containing a bomb-lance, and fitted to a harpoon, which is thrown by hand. When the harpoon enters, a long steel rod comes in contact with the whale, touches the trigger, and fires the bomb-lance. The con- cussion produced by the bomb-lance on striking the whale lights a percussion-cap within, fires a time fuse, and explodes the powder inside the body of the animal, usu- allv killing it instantlv. 208 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. While the boats are engaged m the chase a sharp watch is kept upon tliem from the maiutop-gallant cross-trees, from whence they are signalled. In the right whale fishery the boats usually stay near enough to the ship to communicate with it, but in fair weather the boats engaged in sperm whaling go as far away as ten or twelve miles. If a fog conies on the ship is kept, as far as possible, in the position in which it was last seen from the boats, horns are sounded, guns are lii'ed, and, if the boats are out at night, lights are set, or a fire is made upon the " back arches " of the try-works, pro- ducing a grand eifect amid Arctic scenery. The boats find their way back by the boat-comjjass. If there is a breeze when a whale is taken the ship goes to the whale, but if calm, the prize is towed to the ship. The jirocess of strij>ping the whale of its coating of fat is a rather complex one, so much so that it is difficult to understand from descriptions. When the whale is along- side the ship the flukes are secured by a chain or rope, and haided tight. The cutting tackles are then sent aloft to the mainmast-head, and the " cutting-stage " is built o-\'er the whale in such a way that, while standing upon it, the officers can use their cutting- spades to sever the blubber from the body. A chain is then placed round one of the pectorals and hauled tight with the tackle, so that the whale now rests secured by tail and flip2>er. The first piece of bluljber taken off is that of the lower lip. A hole is cut in the lower lip near the angle of the mouth, and an incision or "scarf" is carried from the angle downward, curving around and running forward to the end of the jaw. Then a " blubber-hook " is put in tlie hole, and pulled at by means of the second set of tackles, while a man with a cutting-spade cuts away underneath the huge jjiece of fat and skin, loosening it from the flesh and bone below, till finally it is free, and is hoisted aboard of the ship. Next a cut is made across the back of the carcass, under the fin, and again across the body, so as to surround a large piece, which is called the " first blanket-piece." This is hauled in by the flipper, which is cut away with it ; but before the blanket-piece is severed, and while the carcass is hanging by it, a hole is cut through between the spout-holes, a chain put in, and attachment made to the free tackle. By the use of the tackle that hauled in the first blanket-piece the carcass is turned so that the other lip can be cut off, and by subsequent manceuvrings two more large bands, or " blanket-jneces," are strip]>ed from the front part of the body. Mean- while the skull is cut across with axes, and tlie entire upper jaw, with, the baleen attached, is hauled on deck by means of the cliain reeved through the spout-holes. Then the blubber left upon the body is cut into spind folds and rolled back behind the vent, at which spot the carcass is cut through, the backbone disjointed, and the mass of flesh and bone that has been denuded of its covering is allowed to float away or sink. Then the " small," or tail portion, is stripped, the flukes cut off close to the chain, and the fluke-chain hauled in. The body being now got rid of, the next pro- ceeding is to cut the baleen, with the gum attached, from the skull, with axes and cutting-spades, and stow it away below. In fine weather, when there is leisure, the slabs are separated, the gum scraped off, and the clean laminaa thried and packed in bundles. The liody of a sperm whale undergoes quite as intricate a series of turnings as that of a right whale, and is even made to assume a perpendicular jiosition. As the most valuable and most abundant deposit of oil in this whale is to be found above the skull, the process necessarily differs in its details from that employed upon a baleen whale. While the body depends from a chain reeved through a hole above the angle of the mouth a cut is made along the head, roughly corresponding to tlie line of the upper WHALES. 209 surface of the maxillary, and thus sei)arating the "junk" from the jaw. If the whale is large, another cut is made higher up, at the liue of union between the junk and the case. Next an incision is carried over the head. The whale is then turned Fr<3. 111.— Outline of sperm whale, illustrating whaler's terras, b. Situation of the case. c. Junk. d. Bunch of the neck. h. Hump. i. Ridge, k. The small. /. Flukes. Between the dotted Hues are the spiral strips or blanket-pieces in which the blubber is taken off. over by hauling at the attachment on the side, and the jaw is wrenched away. Then a chain is attached to the anterior portion of the head, the fluke chain is length- ened, and, while the body thus hangs almost vertically, the entire mass of junk and case is cut away from the bone below, hauled up, and made fast. Tlie blanket-pieces are then stripjied from the body as in a whalebone whale, the backbone disjointed, the larger part of the carcass allowed to sink or float away, and the blubber and " small " hoisted on board. The " case " is then ojiened, and the contents bailed out with the case-bucket. The blubber is " tryed," or melted, on board ship, after it has been cut into pieces of suitable size. The principal regions or "grounds" for sperm whaling are the Azores, or Western Islands, the Cape de Verdo Islands, the Charleston grounds, north of the Bahamas, the Gulf of Mexico and the Carribbean Sea, and tlie Carrol ground, between St. Helena and Africa ; also in the Indian Ocean, the Straits of Madagascar and the northern end of that island, the coast of Arabia, Java, the Straits of Malacca, and the northwest and southern coasts of Australia. In the Pacific Ocean the sperm whale fishery is carried on off Cape Horn, along the coast of Chili and Peru, around the Fiji, Navi- gator, and Kingsmill Islands ; across the South Pacific between 21° and 27° S. lat. ; across the North Pacific between 27° and 35° N. lat., off the eastern shore of New Zealand, on the Middle Ground, between Australia and New Zealand, in the Sooloo and China Seas, along the coast of Japan, and between it and the Bonin Islands, and along the California coast. The whaling-grounds for whalebone whales are, in the North Atlantic, from the Bahamas to Newfoundland, Hudson's and Bafiin's Bay, Davis' Straits, and the coasts of Greenland and Spitzbergen ; in the South Atlantic, the Brazil Banks, Patagonia, .and the Falkland Islands, around Tristan d'Acunha and Gough Islands, and along the coast of Africa ; in the Pacific, along the northwest coast of North America, and along the coast of Kamtschatka through Behring Sea into the Arctic, as far as the icy bar- rier will permit, the Seas of Okhotsk and Japan, the Gulf of Tartary, the southern coast of Chili, and the eastern shore of New Zealand; also around the Crozets, and Kerguelen Islands, south of the Indian Ocean. VOL. V. — 14 W. N. LOCKINGTON. 210 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. Order VI. — SIRENIA. Very like a wliale in external appearance are the members of this order, and, indeed, for a long time thej' were classed -with the Cetacea. The next freak of the systematists was to separate them from the whales, and assign them a position near the elepliants and ungulates. At present, liowever, it is thought that the original ideas regarding them are more nearly correct, though all agree that they belong to a distinct order from the whales. The body in all the sirenians is long and sub-cylindrical, or fusiform, the tail termi- nating, either like that of the whale with a fluke on either side, or in a flat, broad, rounded paddle. The muzzle is very prominent, and the two nostrils are each provided with valves. The tip of the nose is covered with short bristles, while at the angles of the mouth there is a great development of hair, which is kept in motion when the animal is feeding. The eyes are relatively small, and there are no traces of external ears. The two mammas are situated far forward, close to the armpits. All traces of hind-limbs have disappeared externally, wliile the anterior pair are large, flat, and flipper-like, and exceedingly flexible. The skin is very thick and tough, and may be either rough, with scattered hairs like that of the elephant, or smooth and hairless like the integument of the whales. The skull is relatively mucli smaller than in the whales. The two parietal bones meet above ; the orbits are well-defined, and nearly or quite complete. The ramus of the lower jaw is at right-angles to the jaw itself. In Trichechtis there are only six cervical vertelira;, but in the other genei-a there are seven. These cervicals are always free, and never ancliylosed. The ribs, of which there are from fifteen to nineteen pairs, are very thick and stout. The skeleton of the anterior limbs is well developed, while that of the jiosterior pair is rudimentary, or entirely absent, and the pelvic girdle, in the living forms, is reduced to a single small bone on either side, of doubtful homol- ogy. All of the bones are very dense and heavy, exceeding, in these respects, those of any other mammal. The small brain has but few convolutions, and according to Dr. Chapman is more like that of rodents than like that of the elephant. In li/n/tina all true teeth are absent, but in the others they are present in varying num- bers. In all, the anterior portions of the jaws are covered with curious hornj' plates, witli an undulating surface. The stomach is divided into two large digestive chambers, the first of which bears two appendages, as well as a peculiar gland, sliaped like a finger, and beset with follicles. The alimentary tract, like that of all herbivora, is very long, varying from eleven to twenty (in Steller's JRhijtina) times the length of the body. Tlie trachea is unlike that of the Cetacea, and resembles that of the land Mammalia. The heart is cleft at the apex between the ventricles, so that it presents a doulile appearance. The lungs are very large, extending in the manatee nearly one- half the length of the body. Members of this group have been known from ancient times, and ha^■e, it is sup- posed, given rise to the tales of mermaids and mermen. They are slow and inoffensive animals, living solely on vegetable food, and their flesh is said, by those who have par- taken of it, to be extremely jialatable. But two genera are now living, a third having become extinct about a hundred years ago. The fossil genera belong to rocks of the Cainozoic age. MANATEES. 211 The first form wliicli wo will consider is Steller's Rhytiua, liht/tina stdleri, to which we have referred in the preceding account. When Behring — the celebrated Russian voyao'er, who save his name to the straits between Asia and America — was on his second voyage, he visited Kamtschatka and the adjacent Behring's Island. Here there were found numbers of the huge animals, which were even then on the road to extinc- tion, for they were confined to this one island. Steller, who accompanied the expedition as naturalist, has given an account of the anatomy and habits, which until recently have furnished our whole source of information regarding the northern sea-cow. His account in substance describes an animal from twenty to twenty-eight feet in length, with a small oblong head, the snout covered with bristles, the dark-colored body covered by a very rough and thick skin, destitute of hair. The tail was black, ending in a pair of narrow, horizontal flukes, fringed with stiff bristles, closely resembling whalebone. Though very stupid they were of an affectionate disposition, and the sailors readily tamed them. They fed on sea-weeds, eating with the head beneath the water, and arising at intervals to breathe. The great herds were divided into families, each con- sisting of a male and female, a half-grown individual and a young one, born in the autumn. The sailors and natives made short work with these animals, the flesh being very good, and far preferable to the salt-meat which is found on shipboard, and the result was that the last Rhytina was killed in 1708. The collection of bones in St. Petersburg, until recently, were the principal specimens of the Rhytina in any collection ; but in 1883 the Smithsonian Institution received from Dr. L. Stejneger, who visited that region, eleven nearly perfect skulls, and several sets of nearly all the bones of this extinct form. The palate is covered with a rough horny plate, in which no calcareous salts are de]iosited, while the lower jaw bears a similar armament ; Ijetween these plates the sea- weed was ground before passing into the stomach. Steller mentions one striking feature. In the fore-limbs there are no bones beyond the -svi'ist-bones, the fingers being entirely lacking. By the word Dugong the Malays refer to the sirenian known to science as Hali- core dugonff, which is found from the Red Sea, Eastern Africa, and Mauritius to Malacca, the Indian Archipelago, and the West coast of Australia. The color is usually bluish black above, and lighter beneath ; the skin is smoother, and the flukes of the tail broader than in Rhytina. The fore-limbs are rather long, but are without claws. The dentition is rather peculiar in not being constant ; it varies from *. i, c. g, m. ^ = 14, to i. ^, c. §, m. f = 22. The incisors in the male are long, but in the female they are almost entirely concealed within the jaw. Occasionally in the young males other incisors are present in both jaws, but they soon disappear. The molars have broad, flat crowns, destitute of enamel, and usually those in front drop out, and those behind succeed to their place as in the Prolwscidea. These pecidiarities of dentition form one of the chief arguments in favor of jdacing the sirenians near the elephant and mastodon. Once the dugongs were very numerous. The early traveller, Leguat, tells of see- ing schools of several hundred, grazing like sheep on the seaweeds, a few fathoms deep, in the Mascarene Islands. The flesh is regarded as an especial delicacy, and the Malay king claims, as royal property, all that are taken in his domains. The flesh of the young is compared to ])ork, beef, and ^-eal ; but the old dugongs are tougher, and not so highly prized. A clear oil is obtained from them, which has no disagreeable taste 212 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. or odor, and which is highly recommended as a substitute for cod-liver oil. For this reason a dugong fishery has been established in Australia, with the result of rapidly decreasing the numbers of this once common animal. In their habits they are very slow, and are not naturally timid. They j)refer shallow harbors, bays, and mouths of rivers, where they can find sufficient seaweed to supply their enormous appetites. Only three species of the genus Trichechus, or Manatees, are certainly known : T. senegalensis from the west coasts of Tropical Africa, T. americanus from the eastern coast of the western continent, and a third species from Florida, T. latirostris. The genus is characterized by the dental formula, — *. §, c. g, m. | or | ^ 36 or 40. The incisors are present in the upper jaw in the young, but disapjiear in the adult; Fig. l\2. — I{alicort diKjuntf, t-lu-un^. while the molars present the same jihenomena of dropping out, and a succession from behind that we ha\-e noticed with the dugong. The molars have square, transversely fissured, flat crowns. The antci'ior portions of the jaws are covered with liorny jilates. The nostrils are provided w'ith semi-lunar, valve-like openings. The upjier lip is swollen, and deeply notched in the middle. The eyes are small, and are surrounded with I'adiating folds of the skin. The forelimbs have five digits, the first being repre- sented l>y the metacarpals alono, while the otliers are provided with phalanges, their tips being armed with flat claws. The caudal fin is In-oad, and its extremity is rounded, the whole presenting some resemblance to the tail of a beaver, thougli the proportions ai-e somewh.at different. The Soutli American form, T. americanus, is tlie best kno^Ti species, and a description of its ai^pearance and habits are here given. The skin is of a grayish color, MANATEES. 213 hus americantis, American manatee. and closely resembles that of an elephant in texture, the similarity being increased by the presence of scattered hairs. As in the rest of the sirenians these hairs are longer, stoTiter, and more numerous on the palmar surface of the flippers, and especially at the angles of the mouth. The lenarth of the body is usually from twelve to fifteen feet, but, occasionally, old males are said to measure twenty feet in length. This species frequents almost all the rivers of the eastern coast of tropical America, living equally well in salt or fresh water, and ascending the Amazon to Pebas, Equador. It is also found in the West Indies, on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, and, if the Floridian form be not really a ilistinct species, it extends to that peninsula as well. In their liabits they remind us of the lihytina, forming families, which unite into herds, as described with that form. They are apparently monogamous, and are very affectionate, and if the female be attacked, the male will not leave her. The intellect, as would be inferred from the small number of cerebral convolutions, is but feebly developed. In 1875 two small individuals were brought from Demerara, British Guiana, in separate tanks to Baltimore, and thence to the Philadelphia Zoological Gardens, where they lived in confinement for two months and a half. Dr. Chapman has given an account of their haliits and structure, which we freely use. One of them measured six feet, and the other six and a lialf in length. Arrived in Philadelphia the animals were placed in aquaria filled with Schuylkill water, which they seemed greatly to enjoy, swimming about and rolling over and over. They were fed on the plant Vallisneria, gathered from the river, whicji they fanned, as it \\ere, into their mouths by the bristles at the angles of the ti])S ; these hairs spreading out when in use so as to look very much like small fans. Wlien not in motion they rested with the tip of the tail on the floor of the aquarium, back much arched, and the head downward. Breathing took place at intervals of from a minute to a minute and a quarter, the animal rising to the surface for the purpose, and at such times the valves of the nose were seen to open, and then to shut again, as the animal sank. The manatees are hunted by the Indians of South America for food. A harpoon is used in their ca])ture, and when caught the nostrils are plugged up, and the huge animals die of suffocation. Like the rest of the order the flesh is highly prized, and on the coast of Honduras the tail is placed for several days in a pickle of spices, which is said to add not a little to its taste. Like the halicore the manatee furnishes a ^'ery soft, clear oil, which does not become rancid. The fossil genera are rather numerous, and include six ( Prorastomus, Ana2:ilo- nassa, Uemicaulodon, Ontocetes^ Dioplotherinm, mid Jlanatiis) from American beds. The latter genus has left many remains in the more recent strata of our east coast 214 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. from Maryland to Florida, vertebra Ijeing comparatively abundant in the eocene beds of the Cooper and Ashley Rivers in South Carolina. The best known fossil genus is Ilalitlierium, from the niiocene of Europe. In this genus the division of the back teeth into molars and premolars is well-marked, while the upper jaw-bone has tusk-like appendages. This form liad also a thigh-bone a few inches in length. In I'roras- tomiis, from the West Indies, the dentition was i. ^, c. \,p. §, : : 48, which, with the exception of the premolars, reminds one of the tapirs. The genera Dioplot/ierhim, with two incisors, from South Carolina, Ontocetus from the same State, and Semi- caulodon, from the eocene of New Jersey, are but little known. The line of descent of the Sirenia is very obscure, yet we are inclined to agree with Dr. Gill that it is probable that, together with the whales, they have been derived from some type with separate and S]ireading toes, which formed, at the same time, the common progenitor of the carnivorous and other Educabilia. In what line of descent this has followed is extremely uncertain. At the most, however, it can be claimed that no quadrupedal type exists, or has left its remains, so far as is yet known, which so nearly fulfils the condition of intervention between the ordinary quadrupeds and the whales and su'enians, as the Pinnipedia. J. S. KiNGSLET. Fig. 114. — Skull of female manatee, showing tho enormous tusk "wliich never pierces the fleshy lip. ,f \\\ \ "''"'/> /'^ Elephas africamis. Afi-ican elephant. ELEPHANTS. 215 Order VII. — PROBOSCIDIA. There are two living species of Elejiliaiit, — the African {Elephas africam/s) ane incom]iatible with the ofiice of supporting the heavy head and tusks. It is interesting to see how a monkey's prehensile tail, the monkey's and the human hand, a bird's beak, and an elejihant's proboscis, are all different members specialized for the same function of prehension ; but the last surpasses all the others by the multiplicity of functions for which it is competent. Such an organ requires a corresponding measure of intelligence to direct it ; and we need not be surprised to find that the elephant is endowed with a large brain, or to hear anecdotes of his good memory and great understanding. Its brain weighs about ten pounds (three times as much as the human brain), and is much convoluted ; but the cerebellum lies very much behind the cerebrum (a fact that goes against the idea of high intelligence). The magnitude and complexity of the muscular machinery will, in some measure, account for the largeness of the brain-substance ; and after all, when viewed relatively to the weight of the body, it is inferior to what exists in many other mammals, and immensely inferior to the human brain. The elei^hant's brain is only one eight-hundredth the weight of its body ; our brain is one fortieth the weight of our body. Observation shows the elephant after all to be rather a stupid beast ; it is the monkey, the fox, and the crow, which (as Calderwood says) are credited by the Hindoos with brute-euteness, whilst the highest measure of rationality evinced by the elephant is whpn he plucks off a branch of a tree, using it as a whisk to drive off the flies that torment him. It seems that he is very much afraid of flies, will take fright at a mouse, and is always timid and suspicious, none of these being traits of a large mind. Tennent reports that the elei:)hant will lie on the ground and weejj if any- thing has excited his grief, and a female in London Zoological Gardens was said to shed tears whenever a young one was removed from her side ; but these statements savor too strongly of the story of crocodile-tears to perplex us with the necessity of expounding their psychology. The mere possession of so potent a weapon as the proboscis carries with it the necessity of a cori-esponding development of rationality suflieient for its management ; and the anecdotes of long remembrance of kindnesses and insults, and of appropriate i-equitals when the opportunity comes, may be accepted without our being compelled to accord the character of high rationality. No one would place the elephant's tricks on a par with those of a well-educated dog. Elephants are usually gentle in spirit, in their wild state going together in crowds of from twenty-tive to one hundred, living in jjeace with each other, and not disturbing any other kind of animal save in self-defence. One of the herds is a family group, — a patriarchal clan, with all its members united by consanguinity, and admitting 710 218 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. intruders as adopted members. Any individuals that have got out of the family circle are not re-admitted, but are left to spend the rest of their days as lonely vagrants, soon losing their good temper, aiid becoming dangerous " rogues." Such rogues in most cases soon come to the end of their career, and hence they are rarely met with. The family troops, led by old males, roam through the forests, wade through marshes, or by wading cross streams so deep that only the tip of the proboscis reaches above the surface, this wonderful organ serving as a respiratory tube for di^•iug. In this way they can cross lakes or rivers, theu' bodies quite invisible to enemies, and they find their way by scent in a straight course to the opposite bank. They sleep either Ij'ing or standing, are tormented by many jiarasites, and are attended by birds which court them for the sake of hunting after the parasites. The food of the Indian elephant consists chiefly of shoots of soft-wooded trees (mul- berry, fig, bread-fruit) ; they are particularly fond of the sacred peepul {Ficus religiosa), the banyan, and the India-rubber trees, and they consume great quantities of such at a meal. They catch the branches and \>vl\ them off with their proboscis, crunch the twigs and leaves with their broad molar teeth, stripping off the milky bark from the larger boughs. They also eat various kinds of grasses, especially the bamboo, a kind of sugar-cane, and gigantic reeds growing in the jungle (one of them for this reason named Tijpha elephantina). Clumjjs of the grasses are twisted up by their proboscis, are beaten against the legs to free the roots from sand, and are then masticated. The sand still remaining, and the silica forming a constituent of the grasses, serve to keep the molar teeth in order. The Ceylonese elephant largely lives on various kinds of palm. The Siberian mammoth, dwelling in pine-forests, lived on the shoots and needle-leaves of the pine-trees, remains of which were found in the frozen specimen by the Lena. The African elephant is accustomed to eat larger shoots and branches, and its teeth are fitted for a coarser diet than its Asiatic relatives. Although using largely the roots of trees and shrubs, it is also fond of fruits, and especially of an intoxi- catmg fruit of a tree which grows at the Cape. Drummond, in his book on the large game of South Africa, says that they come southward in the fruit season, and retreat to the fastnesses in the interior on the approach of wmter. They are fond of the fruit of the unganu tree, which intoxicates them. After eating it they become tipsy, stag- gering about, playing huge antics, screaming so as to be heard miles off, and not seldom having tremendous fights. Some authors divide the Asiatic elephants into several species, as the Indian ele- phant {Elejyhas indicus), the Ceylon elei^hant (£J. cin(/ale?isis), and the Sumatra elephant (-E sumatramis). The Ceylonese elephant is smaller than the Indian, and has very small or no tusks. Not one in a hundred of the Ceylonese have tusks, and the few that possess them are exclusively males. They excel in gentleness and docility, but this may be explained by the absence of offensive armature. The Sumatran ele- phant is more slender and delicately built, with the proboscis longer and finer than in the Indian fonn, and its tail has a better supply of bristles at its tij). It likewise excels in intelligence. All these characteristics, however, are unstable, and while recognizing two or three varieties, we may include all the living Asiatic forms under the one species, E. indicus. The white elephants of Siam are only an albino variety, specially reserved for royal use. Wliile the African elephant is only known in modern times as a wild beast, all the Asiatic varieties are domesticated, and form a conspicuous feature of Oriental pageantry. t?l ELEPHANTS. 219 Even in Asia they are only partially domesticated, as they do not ordinarily breed in captivity. Hence every individual must be captured, and tamed and educated, most frequently by means of cruel treatment. A trained female elephant (a "koomkie") is used as a decoy to divert the attention of the wild males till their feet are |iinioned to a tree, and then the captive is left to rage and struggle, till he is exhausted l.iy exertion and hungei', and submits to his conquerors. In other cases a whole herd, males and females, old and young, are driven into a large pound (a "keddah"), where all kinds of stratagems are used to reduce and secure them. Sometimes they are traiqied by hidden pits. If the aim is merely to hunt the wild elephant for the sake of liis ivoiy, or flesh and hide, or to get rid of him, or for exalted "sport," the musket or the spike boldly driven into his feet, a large spring-trap driving a stout spike into its body, or other equally simple methods are adopted. Nor is the jsrocess so dangerous as might appear. Drummond informs us that tlie risk is much greater in hunting the lion or buffalo. The elephant soon abandons the pursuit, even though his enemy be clearly in view ; it is easy to hide from him in the jungle ; and he does not like to run up a hill. It is chiefly the females (even when devoid of tusks) that prove dangerous. In a state of domestication the elephants are more ornamental than useful. They are somewhat delicate, and though very powerful, are easilj' injured and disabled by rough work, and often become footsore. It is mainly on occasions of state, as for the royal sport of tiger-hunting, that they are employed. Though usually gentle, yet one will sometimes prove refractory and dangerous, as when one of our American elephant-citizens recently marched at Albany into an ii-on-foundry, and on experiment- ing with his proboscis upon the red-hot bars was displeased with the novel sensation. Jumbo, who is one of our latest distinguished immigrants, was celebrated in London for a double personality (if we may so say). Out of doors he was a well-behaved animal, carrying little children on his back, good-naturedly accejjting and eating their ajiples, cakes, and toys ; but he was vicious at home, a very tyrant to his keejiers, so that their lives were in danger (like liuman beasts that we have known to be gentle abroad, and savage at home). The elephant's driver (" mahout"), who sits astride on his neck and directs his movements, generally obtains such a command over him as to be able to subdue his fits of passion. An ele])hant was running madly through an Indian bazaar, when the mahout boldly ran at him, and struck a spear through his pro- boscis. The pain subdued the monster's fury, so that he desisted from his woi'k of devastation, and permitted the driver to mount and lead him away. Dr. Hooker informs us of an elepliant which sunk in an Indian bog, and could not extricate him- self till he was assisted by men with ropes. The driver was greatly afraid lest the beast would seize Dr. Hooker himself, and by placing him under its knees as a support (which it is apt to do with any object in reach) would crush him to death. But the keeper had no fear on his own behalf, as the elephant would not take such a liberty with its master. The recent appearance of two bal )y elephants, the America and the Bridgeport, in our own country, are cases not merely of popular, but of true scientific interest. The first of these, born in Philadeljihia in JMarch, 1880, weighed two liundred and thirteen and one-half pounds. Its mother weighed seven thousand and twenty pounds, and was twenty-tliree years old ; the father weigiied four tons, and was twenty-six years old. The period of gestation was five hundred and ninety-three days (over one and a half years). The baby's height at the shoulder was tliirty-four and one-half inches; its proboscis was twelve inches long, and nine inches in circumference at the root. It 220 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. suckled by its mouth, holding the trunk in the air with an S-like curve. It was from the outset very inquisitive, jealously scrutinizing its mother's food, and testing the quality of visitors' clothing whenever it had the opportunity. Dr. Chapman found out at its birtli that the important subject of elephantine placentation had been wrongly laid down in our books. The placenta of the elephant has been stated to be deciduate, in this respect differing from that of ungulates. But it was now found to be non- •deciduate and diffuse. As the mode of placentation has in recent years been an important factor in determining the affinities of the mammalian grouj>, and the true mode of classification, this discovery is of scientific value. The rarity of such an event of elephantine life in domestication easily accounts for the previous error. Though apparently very clumsy animals, elephants are really nimble, moving noise- lessly through dense woods, wading through deep waters, and going along at an easy trot that will try a horse to keej) up with them. Though their limbs are not elongated like those of a horse or the deer, but on the contrary the heel reaches the ground, so as to be plantigrade, and they seem scarcely to possess any knees, so that they were once believed to have jointless limbs, yet the muscles which raise and control tlie limbs are large and powerful. The muscles of the fore-limbs, affixed to the broad hatchet-like scapula, with its deep spine and anchor-like metacromial processes, and those of the hind-limbs to the laterally-expanded pelvis, easily lift up the limbs and swing them forward like pendulums, so as to propel the huge carcass with facility and steadiness. Of the foot itself, both of fore and hind extremities, Miall and Greenwood say "that the separate mobility of the parts is greater than would be expected from an external inspection, and much greater than in most ungulates. The jialniar and plantar soles, though thick and tough, are not rigid boxes like hoofs, but may be made to bend even by human fingers. The large development of muscles acting upon the carpus and tarsus, and the separate existence of flexors and extensors of individual digits is further proof that the elephant's foot is far from being a solid, unalterable mass. There are tendinous or ligamentous attachments which restrain the independ- ent action of some of these muscles ; but anatomical examination would lead us to sup- pose that the living animal would, at all events, accurately direct any part of the circumference of the foot by itself to the ground." A glance at an elephant's skeleton will suggest, by the long spines above the back and neck, and by the elevated crown of the skull, with its deep cavity behind, how large must be the nuchal ligament, and the many muscles that suspend the huge head to the front of the body, and which afford an easy resting-place for the mahout ujion the neck. The body is rather short to belong to such a monster ; its twenty-three vertebra (as many as twenty of them bearing ribs) being condensed together into a stout, short axis with a slight curve. The neck is exceedingly short, its seven vertebrae ajijiressed to each other like a rouleau of thin coins, as if it were designed to bring the head as close as possible to the shoulders, and to save leverage. This system of abbre- viation is further carried out in the liead, the heavy bones of M'hich are all carried backward as close as possible to the neck. Thus the cheek-bones (malars) are not on the cheeks at all, but are small, .and carried backward t(3 form the keystone of the zygomatic arch behind the eyes. The nasal bones are very small, and their cartilages form valves within the proboscis ; the ujiper and lower jawbones form sockets for the big grinder-teeth which are strung underneath the main ])art of the skull ; and the lower jawbones meet in front in such a way as to form a remarkable s]>out instead of a lower li]\ In this sj)Out the long conical tongue lies, and much of the work belonging ELEPHANTS. 221 to lips and jaws and cheeks in other animals, is here discharged by the proboscis. This structure of skull is in striking contrast to what obtains in the horse, where jaws, cheek-bones, and nasals are thrown as far forward as possible, so that the incisors may reach the ground and nip the grass. The prominent parts m the front of the elephant's skull depend chiefly on a two-fold arrangement ; namely, the spongy character of the bones, and the enlarged sockets for insertion of the tusks. It has thick spongy bones, having little weight, but bulging at the forehead, so as to jjroduce a false appearance of intellectual power. In a young elephant the bones are not spongy, and the brain nearly fills the upper region of the skull. But as the anunal advances in life the bones of the face swell up like a loaf in an oven, Fig. 115. — Skeleton of the Indian elephant. the air-cavities of the different bones run into each other, and the brain becomes relegated to a small cavity near the base. The cancellous bone of the face has many radiating lamelliB extending from the internal to the outer surface ; the air-chambers of maxillae, premaxilliB, vomer, and other bones communicate, and the sutures between these bones are obliterated. Sometimes the spongy bone is twelve inches in thickness from its inner to its outer walls. Hence the head is not nearly as lieavy as it seems ; and this arrangement protects tlie brain from injury by knocking against the trunks and arms of forest-trees ; and, furthermore, it is difficult for a musket-ball to penetrate the mass of spongy diploe so as to reach a vital part. An extra growth of this sponge' bone gives the African elephant its prominent forehead ; and Drummond ascribes to this its greater invulnerability, as compared with the Asiatic species. "In India and Ceylon 222 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. the elephant's forehead presents a certain mark for the hunter's ball, while in Africa it is quite impervious. I have fired, without making the slightest impression, point- blank from ten yards' distance, with a gun of six bore, at the exact sjiot that in the Asiatic species would be instantly fatal, and the experiment has been as fruitlessly tried dozens of times within my knowledge." It is further manifest, phrenology notwith- standing, that neither the extra bumjj of the African sjjeeies, nor the large heads of any of the species, indicate excessive brain-power ; though it must be conceded that many nations believe that such big beasts must be tenanted by great souls. The face of the elephant, or at least its premaxillary bones, are further enlarged in order to support the huge tusks. These tusks are of the nature of incisor teeth (which is shown by the j)lace of their insertion), and in this respect, and liy reason of the per- petual pulp from which they grow, corresjjond with the chisel incisors of the beaver, and of some marsupials (as the wombat). The upper ones not being antagonized by inferior opposing ones, instead of being worn to a sharp edge, end in a conical point, and continue to grow outward. Some of the tusks of the extinct mammoth ha\-e been found to curve round into a circle, but the curve being oblique they thus clear the head, and point ovitward, backward, and downward. Carse, in India, first made careful observations a century ago on tlie teeth and bones of Indian elejihants, and published them in the Philosophical Transactions (1799). He watched the fall and renewal of the teeth, and secured a large number of skulls of different ages. He showed that the elephants have " milk " or deciduous tusks as well as permanent ones, that the milk tusks appear at about six months of age, that they are small and very caducous, falling out between the first and second year. He found in the young skull the place of the cajjsule of the permanent tusks, which appear a couple of months after the loss of the milk-tusks, and he then observed that they go on increasing during life, for a century or more. Livingstone saw an African elephant with three tusks ; the third (which was situated between the normal ones) may have been a persisting milk-tusk. The base of the tusks is widely open, and the pulp in which they grow is long and conical. The curve assumed by the tusks is such as to distribute the i)ressure laterally on the bones of the skull, and not against the pulp. Though frequently small they may grow to be five or six feet long, and to weigh nearly two hundred pounds; they become obliquely worn at the tips from being used to root up vegetation, the oblique direction of the wearing showing that they work sidewise rather than forward. At the root of the tusk (where it is buried in the premaxillary socket) the ivory is a thin wall, surrounding the pulp which fills its cavitj-. More distally it becomes a solid mass of ivory, retaining in its axis a fine line of ]:)ith. Foreign bodies, sometimes musket-balls, have been found imljedded in the solid ivory. These had first entered by the root of the tusk, through its tliin wall to the pulp-cavity ; and they were subsequently transported forward by the continued growth of the tusk, and the solidification of its interior. The vascularity of the solid part of the tusk is slight. It consists of fine dentine, built up of minute tubules of less than one fifteen-thousandth of an inch in diameter, far too fine for blood-corpuscles to enter. The tubules bend strongly in their course, and their curves, by refracting the light when seen in polished ivory, impart the well- known characteristic decussating striw. Old tusks that have been long exposed to the weather decompose, not along the lines of gro-ni-h but in concentric lamina- which come off at the places where the interspaces between the tubules is weakest. There is no enamel on the tusks; in this they are unlike the incisors of rodents. The ivory ELEPHANTS. 223 of the African si^ecies is more valuable than that of the Indian species, and hence the former is most briskly sought after for the market. The discovery of such substitutes as vegetable ivory (the seed-food of P/ii/telephas) and celluloid (prepared from gun- cotton) has in some measure relieved the trade in ivory, but about one hundred thou- sand animals are annually sacrificed for the sake of their tusks, and we may expect ere many years to learn that the African sujijily is exhausted. F. D. Blyth says that about five hundred and fifty tons of ivory are annually imported to England, involving tlie destruction of forty-four thousand elephants, besides enormous quantities to America, India, and China ; most of it comes from Africa. It costs about £60 per ton. Single tusks weigh from one to one hundred and sixty-five pounds, the average weight being twenty-eight pounds. The largest tusks are yielded by African elephants, and find their exit by the jiort of Zanzibar ; they are noted for being opaque, " mellow " or soft to work, and free from cracks or defects. Those from India, Ceylon, etc., are smaller, opaque (partly translucent), and harder and more cracked. Those from Siam are very " bright," soft, and fine-grained, and are souglit after for carvings and ornamental work. Tlie soft ivory which comes from West Africa south of the equator is more highly valued than any other, and is called " silver-gray ; " it retains its whiteness when exposed to the air, and does not become yellow like Asiatic and East African ivory. Hard tusks are usually small, and become cracked, and are consequently low-priced. In addition to the above a few tons of marajnoth-ivory occasionally come from the Arctic regions and Siberia, and some of these tusks are equal in every respect to ivory obtained from recent elephants. The total absence of canine teeth from the order of proboscidians is doubtless an example of compensation, as the excessive develojiment of one part is usually attended by the reduction or suppression of the adjoining parts. For the same reason we should scarcely expect to find tusks and horns concurring,'thongh some authors have ascribed both to fossil animals. No rudimentary or embryonic stages of canines or of lower incisors have been discovered in young elephants. From the shape of the sjTBphysis of the lower jaw, and its resemblance to that of some animals that possess inferior tusks, there is a jjossibility of the incijnent stage of such organs being yet discovered in the embryo. The molar teeth reach the maximum of massiveness and complexity in these animals, and have many peculiai'ities which render them fine illustrations of animal mechanics. One or two molars are usually found in each half jaw, sunk in a groove. They are solid blocks, and when the front one which has been in active service wears out, it drops from its socket : thereupon a hind one slips along the groove to the front, and a new one is formed posteriorly to replace it. During the advance forward a considerable resorption and new formation of the bone of the jaws takes place. As the new molar replaces the older ones not vertically but by a horizontal advance, it is not easy to tell where we have premolar teeth (elsewhere known by the displacement of a milk-tooth by its successor), and where we have true molars (where no such suc- cession ever occurs). It is found, however, that the total number of teeth that may appear during life in each half-jaw is six; and Owen believes that three of these are premolars. The grooves in which the molars move down are curved, like an are of a circle, con- cave upward and forwai-d. Thus the growing tooth in its socket is nearly at right angles to the external position. The molars of the upper jaw surpass the lower ones in breadth ; and their grinding face is convex antero-posteriorly, while that of the 224 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. lower molars is concave. The upper millstone is convex, and so fits the hollow of its nether mate. Each molar consists of a succession of transverse plates of dentine, faced on every side with enamel, and the interspaces filled with cement, as if the cement had been povired in, or leather had grown up, to fill the cavities, after the plan of forming con- crete. Three degrees of hardness result, the enamel being hardest, and projecting most on the face of the tooth ; the cement being worn down into valleys, whilst the dentine is intermediate. One of the larger teeth, having sixteen transverse plates, the axis of eaeli plate being the summit of a wedge of dentine, bounded on both sides by projecting ledges of enamel, gives a triturating face of sixteen wedges of ivory, thirty-two of enamel, and sixteen of cement, or about sixty-four inequalities. The transverse ridges are furthermore somewhat wavy, so that the corresponding surface of the upper and lower molars shall not have their inequalities coalescing. This undu- lation causes in the Indian species a number of fine zigzags running transversely along tlie face of the tooth. The African sjiecies has fewer ridges, and these so disposed as to present coarse lozenge-shaped figures. The mammoth was an advance on the pat- tern of the Indian species, having very many fine transverse lamellte only slightly " crunped." The first molars of the Indian elephant are in use when he is three months old, and are shed when he is two years old. These have four transverse plates. The second molars have eight or nine plates, and are found in a closed cavity behind tlie first molar. The third molars have eleven to thirteen plates, are four inches long by two broad ; have each a small anterior and a large posterior root, appear above the gum at two vears, are in full use at five years, and are worn out and shed by the ninth year. All these are supposed to be milk-teeth. The fourth molar of each jaw has fifteen or sixteen plates, is seven to eight inches long by three broad, and protrudes at the sixth year (while the third is still in use). It is in full use by the fifteenth year, and is shed some time before the twenty-fifth year. This is the first true molar. The fifth has from seventeen to twenty plates, is nine or ten inches long, by three and one-half broad, and ajjpears at twenty years. The sixth or last molar has twenty-two to twenty-seven plates, and is twelve to fifteen inches long. Thus the later teeth surpass the younger ones in size and complexity, though they may slightly vary in different individuals. The time of life at which the last ones are worn out varies according to the kind of food, and to individual pecu- liarities. The sixth one is expected to last till the close of life, which may considerably exceed a century. Professor Owen calls attention to the fitness of the elephant's grinding teeth for its special habits of life. There are few organs which manifest a more striking adaptation of complex structure to peculiar conditions. We ])erceive, for example, tliat the jaw is not encumbered with the whole weight of the massive teeth at once, but that they are formed in instalments as required. The front part of each tooth, being most abraded, is fitted for the preliminary crushing of the branches of a tree. The transverse enamel- ridges of the succeeding parts of the face of the tooth divide the branches into smaller fragments ; and the posterior part of the tooth is occupied by islands and tubercles (known as " talons ") of projecting dentine and enamel, so as to grind the vegetation into a pulp. This plan not only gives the millstone its indispensable unevenness of surface, but secures the chief efficiency for the finer comminution of food, at the part of the mouth which is nearest to the fauces. As evidence of the soundness ELEPHANTS. 226 of these views we have the fact that in captivity the teeth of elejahants usually get out of order, because the soft food supplied them fails to triturate the faces of the molars, whicli become quite smooth, a pair of molars often coalescing into one mass. The rough shoots and grasses of then- native jungles is most efficient in maintaining their proper condition. Virgil, in the Second Book of the ^-Enoid, reports a tradition that Sicily was at one time a part of the mainland, and that the sea bursting m turned it into an island. Whether tliis was a genuine tradition, or a mere legend, or only a poetical speculation, the remains of fossil elephants set their imiu'imatur on it, and elevate it to the rank of a scientific theory. Not only was Sicily, but the island of Malta, and even Africa, was united to Italy by a neck of land which held together the two continents of Europe and Africa. In Malta have been found the remains of two species of ele- phant, in large numbers. These were pigmy elephants {Elephas melitiefisis and £!. falconeri) about the size of a sheep. Similar remains occur iu Italy along with other species, which are found fossil over many parts of Europe. These facts go along with other arguments to validate the theory of an ancient bridge of land from Italy to North Africa, of which bridge Sicily and Malta with its adjoining islets, are frag- ments. The remains of other species of elephants have been found in different parts of Euroi^e and Asia, many of them in the bed of the German Ocean east of England (relics of the time before England was divorced from continental Europe, and when it was covered with subtropical vegetation;, many others in the Sivalik hills of India, and the mammoths extending over Central and Northern Europe and Asia. These remains are so abundant that Siberia and the German Ocean have become hunting- grounds or fishing-grounds for ivory ; and Siberian ivory has been extensively used for making dice, statuettes, and other trinkets. In America remains of the mammoth have been found in Alaska, and as far southward as Oregon, and in the Southern States the teeth of a species (^Elephas columbi) closely resembling the Indian elephant. It is curious that while the teeth of these animals have been frequently found in our country, their bones are very rare. They liave been so long extinct in the New World, and their huge bones are so easily disintegrated that all except the hardest portions have disappeared. In the New World are found the bones of closely-allied forms. The Red Indians called them the remains of the " Fathers of Oxen," said that they lived in old times along with gigantic men, and that the Great Spirit destroyed them all with his thunderbolts. Dr. Barton states that in 1761 there were found, by the Indians in America, five carcases, with long noses above their mouths. There is reason to believe that these animals lived quite recently in the United States. One of the animals whose remains first attracted notice in our country was called the " Ohio beast." Though not an elephant, it had much of the family likeness, short neck, large skull, with sponge-like bony plates, a place for a proboscis, tusks in the upper jaw, large complex molar teeth, expanded pelvis, and pillar-like limbs, with elephantine wrists and ankles and toes. It differed from the elephant chiefly in the form of the molars, which had a series of pairs of large conical projections, instead of flat grinding surfaces ; being less worn, and adapted for softer food. From the resemblance of these projections to nipples, the animals have been called Mastodons. Besides the " Ohio beast " {Masto- don americunus), remains of other species have been found in North and South America {M. mirijicus in the Loup Fork of Nebraska, M. Mumholdtii, and other VOL. V. — 15 226 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. species in the Chilinn Andes and La Plata, and M. productus from Nebraska, remark- able for ha\'ing two large lower tusks). Several species of mastodon have been found in tlie old wtjrld, some of them in India, and M. angustidens in Europe. Some of the species show the transitions between the elephantine and the mastodontic types of teeth, so that by putting them together we have a series of twenty-five or thirty species, many of them the largest land animals that ever existed on the earth, and blending together liy regular gradations of structure. Remains of a third group have been found in the old world, but they are as yet unknown in America. These belong to the Dinotheriiim, first described by Kaup from a piece of a skull found on the Rhine, and afterwards found in India, and in the Isle of Perim, at the entrance of the Red Sea. Only the skull and a few of the leg- FiG. 1 16. — Skeleton of Mastodon americanus. bones of this genus have been found. It had the chin bent down so as to support two large tusks projecting downwards from its lower jaw, as if for tearing up weeds, or for anclioring itself along the banks of streams. Its molar teeth were somewhat after the elejihantine type, but much simpler in structure, and not increasing in complexity backwards. In 3fastodon the intermediate molars (including the last premolar and the first one or two molars) have usually three ridges in one series of the species (hence called the Trilophodon group), and four ridges in another series (the Tetralophodon grouji). The front premolars have fewer, and the hind molars have more, ridges than the inter- mediate formula, the common difference being one ; whilst the intermediate teeth do not differ among themselves. Some of the forms have five as the intermediate ridge formula (the Pentalophodon grouji). These ridges in the mastodons support each of them a pair of nipple-shaped prominences, the intermediate valleys not being filled ELEPHANTS. 227 with cement. Owen believes that both sexes of the mastodons had, in addition to the upper tusks, a pair of lower tusks projecting forward, but that these disappeared in the female when young, and only the right one was retained by the male. Some of the American fossils ha\e small inferior tusks, and IT. productus has both of them rather large, but one of tliem longer than the other. The elephants differ from the mastodons by having higher intermediate formulae (varving from six upwards), and by having the valleys more or less filled up, and the nipple-like projections obsolete. In one group {Stegodon) the ridges are even more prominent than in Mastodon, and the common difference between the ridges of adjoining teeth is one. Members of this groujJ occur as fossils in India. They apjiroach the mastodons, but have a ridge formula of seven or eight, and much cement filling the valleys, the ridges convex with many points to each ridge. Loxodon in- cludes the African elephant, the pigmy elephants of Malta, and several Indian fossil forms. It has two as the common difference. EuelepJias, which includes the Indian elephant of our day, and the mammoth, and the fossil E. columbi of America, has an intermediate ridge-formula of twelve or fourteen and a common difference of about four. The premolars of the Indian elephant are |I|I||, the permanent molars il-il-lltoTFTi or often IfliflHioiT- Behind the ridges, especially in the hind molars, outlying elevations or " talons " occur, which Falconer does not include in these formulas. Falconer compares the molars of the whole order, dividing the species according to the several types of teeth. First came Dmothtrium, which at a certain period of life had two middle molars with a ternary ridge-formula. These were the last milk-molar and the first true molar, which for a time co-existed, were contiguous, and were both characterized by having their crowns divided into three transverse ridges. All the other molars and the premolars had a binary ridge-formula; the complete formula being, milk-molars 2 4-3, premolars 2 -f 2, molars 3 + 2 -f 2. The adjoining milk- molar and molar, Falconer terms the " intermediate molars ; " these are simpler in Dinotherium than in any others of the order, yet they surpass in complexity all other mammals. The closest approach to them is found in the tapirs, and Cuvier thought Dinotherium was a gigantic tapir. The tapirs, though unlike proboscidians as to incisors and canines, approach tliem in having premolars with semi-cones and ridges, and molars with wedge-shaped eminences, but not enlarging posteriorly. The pos- terior molars of Dinotherium, though not so complex as in other proboscidians, have the out-lying eminences or "talons" that are characteristic of the order. The geographical distribution of the Proboscidians is best understood by a refer- ence to their past history. They are now discontinuous, confined to India and its neighborhood and Central Africa, whilst the semi-fossil mammoth was in Northern Asia. But they were at one time distributed over all the great continents. Tliey seem never to have reached Australia. None of the group have existed in islands unless these islands were at one time joined to the continent. Their remains occur only in fresh-water deposits, as the Sivalik Hills of India, and the later beds of Nebraska and Texas. Even the bed of the German Ocean seems to be of fresh-water origin. They first appeared in the Old World toward the close of the miocene or in the early pliocene age, the age of forests over all continents, when Europe had dense jungles, and semi- tropical vegetation like that of our southern states. From the old world they possibly migrated (in common with many other large animals) to North America, and thence to South America ; and a different group (the Loxodons) from Asia to the eastward parts of 228 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS- Africa, and thence, by the Maltese and Itahan highway, northward. The mastodons began somewhat earlier, and probably remained longer in the new world than the elephants, having perhaps found a refuge in marshy regions after the elephants had been exterminated from the forests by big carnivores. "Whence these giant beasts came we cannot tell. We shall see that the tapirs belonging to the perissodactyle ungulates show in their molar teeth an ajiproxiination to the proboscidians. Also the Ilyrax, or rock-rabbits of Syria and South and West Africa, have many points of structural agreement with the elephants (as large pre- maxillaries, the malar bones thrown back into the zygomatic arch, and the structure of the feet, and even the molar teeth), though in size and habits and many structural details they widely differ. All these groups agree in being discontinuous ; they are scattered frag- ments left in a few localities ta rejiresent orders of animals that were once wide-spread over the world, — the tapirs being now found in South America as well as the East Indies. Professor Cope thinks that they may all have branched from some primitive stock of eocene times. At one time he would have jilaced the Amblypoda (illustrated by the wide-spread Coryi^hodon found in the old and new world eocenes) as the orig- inal group, but now he goes still further back to the group which he calls Taxeopoda. Cory2)hodon was as large as an ox, and had the wide elephantine pelvis ; but it had canine tusks, and the bones of proximal and distal rows of the carpals alternated with each other, while those of the Proboscidia and Hyrax are in the same longitudinal lines. All the members of the proboscidian order were well differentiated at the close of the miocene age, and have scarcely changed since. Falconer justly suggests that it is difficult to evolve them out of any known eocene forms. In this grouji we have an example of what A. R. Wallace notes as a course of dejiopulation of the continents so far as big beasts are concerned. The advent of tigers, and of man, the most predaceous of animals, and the deforesting of many regions, along with alterations of climate, have secured their extermination. Even the African elephants are now exterminated from the southern colonies of their continent, and the Asiatic species is protected only for the pur])ose of being enslaved to dominant man. But the search for ivory in the one country, and the advent of steam-machinery to the other, promise soon to end their career. The slow increase of the race, the smallness of their families, and tlieir great size, all combine to secure their annihilation. They were at one time the lords of the herbivora, continuous, and even dominant over both worlds. Now they have only a few survivors in the combat of life, and these driven to inac- cessible lurking-places by that more dominant iirimate, who annihilates every beast which he does not deign to enslave. G. Macloskie. HYRAX. 229 Oeder VIIL — HYKACOIDEA. The small animals for which Professor Huxley framed this order have made nearly as much trouble for biblical scholars as for students of natural history. There are several jilaces in the Bible where the word " shaphan " occurs, and these our trans- lators have rendered by " coney," under the impression that the rabbit was meant. These passages are as follows : Leviticus xi. 5 : " And the coney, because he cheweth Fig. 117. — Ili/i-ax ii>i7-iacn>s, coney, daman. the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he is unclean to you." Deuteronomy xiv. 7, repeats the same idea. Psalms civ. 18 : " The high hills are a refuge for the wild goats, and the rocks for the conies ; " and Proverbs xxx. 24-28 : " There be four things which are little upon earth, but they are exceeding wise ; the ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer ; the conies are but a feeble folk, yet they make their houses in the rocks ; the locusts have no king, yet they go forth all of them by bands ; the spider taketh hold with her hands, and is in king's palaces." These descriptions, meagre as they are, are still sufficient to enable us to recognize that the Hyrax, or daman, was intended, the only fault lieing that the Hyrax does not really chew the cud, but when sitting quietly it keeps its jaws in such constant motion that one would readily mistake it for a rumination similar to that so familiar in sheep 230 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. and cows. The Hyrax lives iu holes in the rocks, and is said to be extremely wary and timid, thus justifying Solomon's remarks about its wisdom. The zoologist's difficulty, has been to assign these animals to their proper place in the systems of classification. First placed among the rodents, they were then trans- ferred to the pachyderm ungulates near the elephants, and lastly assigned, by Professor Huxley, to an ordinal position next to the Ungulata. The Order Hyracoidea is cliai'acterized by two curved incisors, with persistent pulps, like those of rodents, in the upper jaw, and four cutting teeth in the lower. The palmar surfaces of the feet are furnished with pads like those of the rodents and car- nivores, the fore-feet having four, and the hind-feet three toes, with the terminal joints enclosed in hoofs. These hoofs are straight and flat with the exception of that of the inner hind toe, which is curved. The tail is very short, a mere tubercle. The body is covered with a short hair, among which occur scattered hairs of greater length. On the face the hairs become much stouter, taking the form of bristles around the nostrils and above the eyes. The single genus, Hyrax, with a dental formula, i i, c %, m f or ^, has been divided by Dr. Gray into three sub-genera, with ten species, but the validity of some of them is extremely doubtful. The best known forms are the Coney or Daman, S. si/riacus, and the Klipdachs of the Boers, IT. capensis. The coney is a small animal about the size of a rabbit, or a little larger, and is covered with a rather coarse brownish fur. Like its southern relative it lives in holes among the rocks of mountainous districts, and while feeding it is said that they post individuals as sentinels, who give warning of the approach of danger by a shrill cry. It cliietly prefers the young shoots of shrubs, but will eat grass, herbs, and flowers, and is very fond of salt. The coney can be easily tamed, but does not make a very interesting pet. In its distribution it extends from Syria south to Abyssinia, and the head of the Red Sea. The Hyrax capensis has much the same habits, and is found in the mountainous regions near the Cape of Good Hope. A third sjjecies, H arboreus, is found in South Africa, extending as far north as Mozambique. This differs from the two species already mentioned by longer hair, and by a white spot on the back. Still another iorva, H. sylvestris, from the Guinea coast of West Africa, is said to vary in its habits, living in hollow trees. No remains of the Hyracoidea are known before the present geological age. J. S. KiNGSLET. TOXODONTIA. 231 Order IX. — TOXODONTIA. This extremely curious group of extinct mammals has been founded upon some fossils frona late tertiary (or perhaps quaternary) beds of South America. It contains two genera, Toxodon and JVesodon, of which the former is the better known. Toxodon was a large animal about the size of a hippopotamus, and with a massive skeleton which presents very jiuzzling affinities to the ungulates, rodents, and edentates, as well as some resemblances to the Sirenia. The skull is flattened, and the supra- occipital region slopes obliquely upwards and forwards ; the cranial cavity is very small and indicates a low grade of intelligence ; the zygomatic arches are long and strong, and bend strongly outwards. The openings of the nasal cavity are directed upwards, as in the Sirenia. The dentition is very peculiar. In the upper jaw are four incisors, the median ones are small, the lateral large, but there are no upper canines. The lower incisors are six in number, and a pair of very small canines is present. The structure of the incisors resembles that in the rodents. The molars, seven above and six below, are convex externally and concave internally, and with flat grinding-surfaces. They are devoid of enamel on the inner side, and are divided by internal valleys into two lobes. These teeth grow from persistent pulps, that is to say they form no roots, but continue their growth during the life of the animal. These molars recall in some particulars those of the edentates, but the presence of canines and incisors would forbid the reference of the genus to that gr. Fossil members of these three families do not occur before miocene times, and, indeed, most of them are confined to higher strata, so that the families are of comparatively recent 236 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. origin. The most generalized type of perissodactyles is the iive-toed, tubercular- toothed Phenacodon, described by Cope, from the lowest eoceue beds (the Puerco and Wasatch), but this type very early gave place to the Lophiodontidaj and Chalicotlieri- idaa, which were very abundant throughout the whole of the eocene period, and had the toes already reduced to four on the fore feet and three on the hind, like the tapirs. Their teeth, also, had already begun to lose the tubercular type, and to assume the transversely lobate or lophodont type, which eventually gave rise to the complex cres- centic pattern of the horse's molar. The miocene representatives of the sub-order were chiefly Rhinoceridre and Palfeo- theriidte, the former beginning to show the reduction in the incisor and canine teeth, which reaches its climax in the living African rhinoceroses, the latter retaining the full complement of these teeth, as do the tapirs and horses. Both of these families had only three toes on the fore feet, of equal length in the rhinoceroses, but undergoing tlie reduction in the Palfeothoriidic which has culminated in the horse of the present day. In the older forms, like FalajotJtenum, from the upper eocene, the lateral toes were still large, Init in forms like Mesohippus and Aiichithernim, from the oligocene and middle miocene respectively, these began to be much reduced in dimensions. As we shall see in discussing the fossil horses many of the Paheothoriidre were direct pro- genitors of the horses of the present day, and it is very interesting to note that fossil remains of the horse are found in the same strata with those of less fortunate relatives, like the Protohip2>HS, which became extinct in virtue of their less perfect foot structure. The tapirs certainly constitute the most generalized family of living Perissodactyles, for not only do we find the complete dentition and the fourth toe on the fore feet in support of this view, but the skeletons of many of the fossil forms have distinctly " tapiroid " characteristics. We shall therefore describe the members of the family TAPiraDyE before taking up the rhinoceroses and horses. Wallace considers that the geographical distribution of the tapirs points to their approaching extinction, for we find one of the species inhabiting the Malay Peninsula and the neighboring large islands, while the others inhabit Central and South America. From the absence of true tapir remains in American miocene strata, Wallace believes that they are an old world group which only entered the American continent at a comparatively recent epoch. On the whole there appears to have been an increase in size from the earliest ancestral form, for some of the LophiodontidiB did not exceed a rabltit in size, while the tajiirs are considerably larger than a Iiog. In the shape of the head and body there is something that recalls the hog, for the trunk is massive and the legs stout and short, but the long prehensile upper lip, the short ears, longer neck, and short thick tail are eminently characteristic of the tapir. Tlie skin is soft, covered with short close hair, which varies in amount and distribution in the different sjiecies. The vertebras of the trunk are twenty-three or twenty-four in ninnber, and of these generally nineteen bear ribs ; the tail has twelve joints. The skull is chiefly peculiar in the wide distance between the nasal and pre- maxillary bones, and the articular end of the lower jaw is of immense strength. The teeth are arranged according to the following formula, i.^, c.\, jo.f , ?».§ . The outer up])er incisors and the lower canines are of large size ; the upper canines are small and separated by a short gap from the incisors, but thei'C is a much wider gap (diastema) between the canines and the grinders. These have the simplest pattern of living perissodactyles. The four toes of the fore-feet appear to constitute an exception in UNGULATES. 237 }gsfjmjpJXj^~p7p,'^^i:^j^ ^ tliis order of the odd-toed ungulates, but examination speedily shows that the outer- most toe does not share in the supjjort of the body, and that the middle one of the other three (the third) is symmetri- cal in itself, and that which in the horse monopolizes the function of sup- port. The Old-World , Tapir ( Tapirus in- dicus) is larger, and esi^ecially longer, and somewhat more gracefully built than the American Flu. 1:^3. — Skeleton of tapir. species. It is immediately distinguishable from these by the broad white mark which ex- tends over the rump to the under surface of the belly, while the rest of the coat is black. S^ifitlfe^ Fig. 124. — Tapirus americanus, .'i.merican tapir, oue-sixteeuth natural size. The length is about eight feet, the height at the shoulder thirty-nine inches. The pre- hensile snout is employed for secui-ing young leaves and twigs, the chief food of this as well as the new-world forms. The habits of the Indian species, which ranges from Borneo and Sumatra to Malacca, are but little known, but probably very similar to those of its American allies. Better known than the above is the common South American species 238 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. T. americanns. These tapirs are found in all thickly-wooded districts of South America as far as the foot of the Andes. They have been subjected to a good deal of persecu- tion for the sake of their hide and flesh, both of which are valued, and accordingly are very shy and wary in the neigliborhood of settlements. Living on all sorts of young leaves, shoots, and fruits, they are regarded as somewhat dangerous neighbors to planta- tions, and may often do a great deal of damage in a single night. In their habits they are crepuscular or nocturnal, and are further fitted, by the thickness of the skin, for penetration of the thickest underbrush, so that the pursuit of them is attended with con- Svl^KS?^- i*^ Fig. 125. — Tapirus indicus, Indiau tapir, one-eighteenth natural size. siderable difficulty. Of all the Perissodactyla this is probably the most swamp-loving species. They are said to swim well, and take to the water readily, when they are most easily secured. Dogs are emi)loyed to drive them from the thickets into open country. The male tapirs are somewhat solitary in their habits, associating with the females only at pairing time. Only one young is dropped at a birth, after a period of gestation of four months. The young is spotted and striped, as is the case with the other species, and in this respect present a singular contrast to the adult which, esjiecially in this species is of a very uniform color. The coat of the adult is of very short gi-aj-ish-black hairs, which are somewhat paler at the sides of the neck, and from their greater length on the middle line of the head and neck form a short, stiff mane. In UNGULATES. 239 size the female somewhat exceeds the male, and may attain a length of almost seven feet. A second South American species from the Andes occurs under very different cir- cumstances from the above-mentioned form. It is alw.ays found at high levels on the Corderillas, ascending to between seven and eight thousand feet. The skin is uniformly covered with hairs an inch in length and mostly brownish black, whence it is spoken of as the Hairy Tapir, and is known to naturalists as T. roulini from its first describer, M. Iloulin. The hairs on the nape and sides are a little longer. There is a wliite spot at the corners of the mouth which may extend on to the cheeks ; the end of the snout and the edging of the ears are also white, while the sides are of a bluish hazel instead of brown. In length the hairy tajjir measures fifty-four inches, and stands twenty-six inches high .at the shoulder. Two species of tapir have been recently discovered in Central America which present so many important points of difference from the South American species that Dr. Gill established tlie separate genus Elasmorpiathus for them. They rather approach the Indian species in the structure of the skull, but are characterized by the ossified nasal septum. E. barrdii from Nicai-agua is forty-two inches long and twenty- three high. It is brownish black on the upjier j^arts, but the face is rufous and the throat and chest dirty white. Professor Verrill has described the young of this species as of reddish brown color with ten longitudinal rows of white patches on the sides blending into stripes. The sides of the face and the legs are also striped. E. dowi, the second species, is found both on the Pacific and Atlantic slopes of Central America, being recorded from Guatemala and the east coast of Costa Rica. This species wants the rufous cheeks of the latter form. Little is known of the habits of these Central American sjsecies, but Dr. Gill suggests that the great difference in the structure of the skull is probably associated Avith some difference of habit. The living members of the family Rhinoceeid.e have only three toes on each foot, the second, third, and fourth, and tliese are equally long, but the weight of the body does not rest upon the small hoofs which cover the terminal joints, but rather upon a hard, rough pad which is formed on the imder surface of the toes higher up. The third toe alone is synnnetrical in itself, its last joint being somewhat similar to the coffin bone of the horse. The skin is excessively thick, a circumstance which ind'-.oed the older zoologists to associate the rhinoceroses with the elephants and hippopotami as " Pachydermata." It may be converted into a series of impenetrable shields, the sur- faces of which are marked off into tubercles between which the scanty hairs spring. The head is elongated like the tajiirs, but proportionately broader. The leaf-eating species have a prehensile upper lip, but it is never jirolonged into a rounded probos- cis. The middle line of the nose bears one or two horns, destitute of a bony core, and composed of agglutinated fibres which are developed in the same way as hairs No canine teeth are present even in the milk set ; the incisors are 3- in the milk set, but disappear partly or entirely in the permanent set ; the molars are ^, and their surface has a pattern intermediate in complexity between that in the tapir and the horse. The tail has twenty-two vertebrfe instead of twelve. The living species of rhinoceros, six in number, are equ.ally divided among three sub-genera, Atelodus, Ce7-atorhinus, and Bhinoceros. The first of these is confined to Africa; the second and third extend from the larger islands of the Malay Archipelago up the Malay peninsula to British Burmah, Assam, Bengal, and as far north as the foot 240 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. of the Himalayas. The genera are readily distinguished liy the nature of tlie skin, ■which in tlie African forms, Atelodus, does not shape itself into the distinct shields so characteristic of the Indian one-horned rhinoceros {lihinoceros j^roper), while the genus Ceratorhinus is intermediate between the others in tliis respect. Again, the two former genera have two median horns, while the latter has only one. The African species are destitute of incisor and canine teeth, while these are arranged according to the formula /. \, c. ^-, in the Indian species. I'li.. l-ti. — J/' ''liiis l'U'orni:<. two-horned rhiuoceros. A somewhat detailed account of the habits and mode of life of the African rhinoce- roses will enable us to dispense with any long descriptions of the Indian species, which in fact are much less known botli to sportsmen and naturalists. After a residence of eight years in south Africa, F. C. Selons has communicated to the Zoological Society of London the result of his observations on the species of rhinoceros met with there. He distinguishes two; the large, square-mouthed, grass- eating species {A. simus), and the smaller, prehensile-lipped form wliicli feeds exclusively on bush {A. bicornis). Twenty years ago A. simus {Umhqfo of the Matabele, Chuhicru of the Bechuanas) was very common in the ^^•estern half of south UNGULATES. 241 Africa, now it is almost extinct tliere, and will soon only exist in a few small tracts of south east Africa near the River Sabi. Although A. simus is generally spoken of as the white rhinoceros there is not much difference of color between it and A. bicornis. "It is a huge ungainly beast with a disproportionately large head, a large male standing six feet six inches at the shoulder. Like elephants and buffaloes they lie asleej} during the heat of the day, and feed during the niglit, and in the cool hours of early morning and evening. Their sight is very Ijad, but they are quick of hearing, and their scent is very keen ; they are, too, often accompanied bj' rhinoceros birds {liuphaga qfricana), which, by running about their heads, flapping their wings and screeching at the same time, frequently give them notice of the approach of danger, and are further of service in ridding them of parasites. When disturbed they go off at a swift trot, easily distancing a man on foot, but they are no match for a good liorse." The anterior horn of a full grown animal is from eighteen inches to over four feet in length, a cow having a thinner and usually a longer horn than a bull. Occasionally they are curved backwards, but generally straight and flattened by friction on the anterior surface. The posterior horn may vary from three or four inches to two feet, and there appears to be as mucli variation in relative length as in individuals of A. bicornis. The prehensile-lipped rhinoceros (^'1. bicornis) (Upeygan of the Matabele, Borele of the Bechuanas) is still fairly numerous in many districts of southeast Africa. Between the Chobe and Zambesi Eiders there appear to be none, but they extend north of that through central Africa into Abyssinia. They feed exclusively on leaves and yijung shoots, a circumstance whieli accounts for their presence in many tracts where A. simus would be unable to procure its livelihood. These rhinoceroses are very quick and restless in their movements, but Selons acquits them of the surliness and moroseness which most tl•a^'ellers ascribe to them, and considers that there is much less danger in hunting them tlian in hunting the lion, elephant, or l)uffalo. The old Dutch hunters and also the Kaffirs distinguish a third species, whicli has been scientifically described as A. keitloa, and which is characterized by the second horn being equal in length to the first. It is the blue rhhioceros of the colonists and the keitloa of the natives. Selons points out, however, that there are all gradations between the one and the other, while the habits of the keitloa are precisely similar to those of the ordinary black rhinoceros. Both, for example walk and run with their heads high in the air, while A. sinuis carries its head low, and when feeding rubs its anterior horn on the ground, a circumstance which enables one to distinguish an anterior horn of this species from one belonging to the other. Again, the female of A. si)7ius guides with her horn her young calf in front of her, while the calves of A. bicornis follow their mothers. For the following description of the habits and modes of hunting of the Abyssinian variety of the African rhinoceros (keitloa) we are indebted to Sir S. Baker's " Nile Tributaries of Abyssinia." "I had been observing the country for some tmie from my high station when I suddenly perceived two rhinoceroses emerge from a i-avine ; they walked slowly through a patch of high grass, and skirted the base of the hill upon which we were stamling. Presently they winded something, and they trotted Iiaek and stood concealed in the patch of grass. Although I had a good view of them from my present position, I knew that I should not be able to see them in their covert if on the same level ; I there- VOL. v. — 16 242 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. fore determined to send to the tent for my other liorse, and to ride them down. In the meantime I watched the rhinoceroses ; Vroth animals lay down in the yellow grass, resembling masses of stone. They had not been long in this position before we noticed two pigs wandering through the grass directly to windward, towards the sleeping rhinoceroses. In an instant these animals winded the intruders, and, starting up, they looked in all directions, but could not see them as they were concealed by the high grass. Having been thus disturbed, the rhinoceroses moved their quarters and walked slowly forward, occasionally halting and listening ; one was about a hundred yards in advance of the other. They were taking a direction at the base of the hill that would lead them directly upon the sjjot where Tetel was tied to the tree. I observed this to Taher Noor, as I feared they would kill the horse. 'Oh, no,' he I'eplied, 'they will lie down and sleep beneath the first tree, as they are seeking for shade ; the sun is like fire.' However, they still continued their advance, and, upon reaching some rising- ground, the leading rhinoceros halted, and I felt sure that he had a. clear view of the horse, that was now about five hundred yards distant, tied to the tree. A ridge descended from the hill, parallel with the course the animals were taking ; upon this I ran as quickly as the stony slope permitted, keeping my eye fixed upon the leading rhinoceros, who, with his head raised, was advancing directly towards the horse. I now felt convinced that he intended to attack it. Tetel did not observe the rhinoceros, but was quietly standing beneath the tree. I ran as fast as I was able, and reached the bottom of the hill, just as the wilful Ijrute was within fifty yards of the horse, which now for the first time saw the approaching danger. The rhinoceros had been advancing steadily, at a walk, but he now lowered his head, and charged at the horse at full speed. " I was about two hundred yards distant, and for the moment I was afraid of shoot- ing the horse, but I fired one of the Reilly, No. 10, rifles ; the bullet, missing the rhinoceros, dashed the sand and stones into his face, as it struck the ground exactly before his nose, when he appeared to be just into tlie unfortunate Tetel. The horse in the same instant reared, and breaking the bridle, it dashed away in the direction of the camp, while the rhinoceros, astonished at the shot, and most likely half blinded by the sand and splinters of rock, threw up his head, turned round, and trotted back upon the track by which he had arrived. He jiassed me at about a hundred yards' distance, as I had run forward to a bush, by which he trotted with his head raised, seeking for the cause of his discomfiture. Crack! went a bullet against his hide, as I fired my remaining barrel at his shoulder ; he cocked his tail, and for a few yards he charged toward the shot, but he suddenly changed his course, and ran round several times in a small circle ; he then halted, and, reeling to and fro, he retreated very slowly, and lay down about a hundred yards off. Presently the wounded rhinoceros stood up, and, walking very slowly, followed by his comrade, he crossed a portion of rising ground at the base of the hill, and both animals disappeared. I found the rhinoceros lying dead about two hundred yards from the spot where he had received the shot, and I immediately perceived the companion, that was standing beneath a small tree. The ground was firm and stony, all the grass had been b\n-ned off except in a few small patches ; the trees were not so thick together as to form a regular jungle. The rhinoceros saw us directly, and he valiantly stood and faced me as I rode up within fifty yards of him. I was iniable to take a shot in this position, therefore I ordered tlie men to ride round a half-circle, as I knew the rhinoceros would turn towards the white horses, and thus expose his flank; this he did immediately, and firing well, exactly at the shoulder, I UNGULATES. 243 dropped him as though stone dead. The number twenty-four bullet had not force to break the massive shoulder-bone, but had merely paralyzed it for the moment; up he jumped, and started off in full gallop. I saw the rhinoceros pelting away about a hundred and twenty yards ahead, and, spurring hard, I shot up to him at full speed, until within twenty yards, when round he came with astonishing quickness, and charged straight at the horse. I was prepared for this, as was my liorse also. We avoided him by a quick turn, and again renewed the chase, and regained our position within a few yards of the game. Thus the hunt continued for about a mile and a half, the rhinoceros occasionally charging, but always cleverly avoided by the horse. Tetel seemed to enjoy the fun, and hunted like a greyhound. Nevertheless I had not been able to pass the i-hinoceros, who had thundered along at a tremendous pace whenever I had attempted to close ; however, the pace began to tell upon his wounded shoulder ; he evidently went lame, and as I observed at some distance before us the commence- ment of the dark-colored rotten ground, I felt sure that it would shortly be a case of 'stand still.' In this I was correct, and upon reaching the deep and crumbling soil, he turned sharp round and made a clumsy charge, that I easily avoided. lie stood panting, at bay. Riding Tetel close to his flank I fired both barrels of the little Fletcher into the shoulder. He fell to the shots, and, stretching out Ins legs convulsively, died immediately. " The drinking hour is about 8 p. m., oi- two hours after sunset, at which time the rhinoceros an-ives at the river from his daily retreat, which is usually about four miles in the interior. He approaches the water by regular ])aths, made by liimself, but not always by the same route ; and after drinking he generally retires to a particular spot beneath a tree, that has been visited upon regular occasions. In such places large heaps of dung accumulate. The hunters take advantage of this peculiarity of the rhinoceros, and they set traps in the i)ath to his private retreat ; but he is so extremely wary, and so acute is the animal's power of scent, that the greatest art is necessary in setting the snare. A circular hole, about two feet deep and fifteen inches in diameter, is dug in the middle of his run, near the tree that has been daily visited ; upon this hole is placed a hoop of tough wood, arranged with a vast mnnber of sharp spikes of a strong elastic wood, which, fastened to the rim, meet at the centre, and overlap each other as would the spokes of a wheel in the absence of the hub if lengthened suf- ficiently. We will simplify the hoop by calling it a wheel without a centre, the spokes sharpened and overlapping in the middle. This instrument being fitted neatly above the hole, a running noose of the strongest rope is laid in a circle upon the wheel, the other extremity of the rope is fastened to the trunk of a tree that has been felled for that purpose, and dee])ly notched at one end to prevent the rope from slijsping. This log, which weighs about five or six hundred ])ounds, is then buried horizontally in the ground, and the entire trap is covered with earth and carefully concealed ; the surface is smoothed with a branch instead of the hand, as the scent of a human touch would at once be detected by the rhinoceros. When completed, a quantity of the animal's dung is swept from the heap upon the snare. If the trap is undiscovered, the rhinoce- ros steps upon the hoo]), through which his leg sinks into the hole, and u])on his attempt to extricate his foot the noose draws tight over the leg ; as the spiked hoop, fixing tightly into the skin, prevents the noose from slipping over the foot. Once caught, his first effort to escape drags the heavy log from the trench. As the animal rushes furiously away, this acts as a drag, and by catching in the jungle and the ])rotruding roots of trees, it quickly fatigues him. On the following morning the hunters discover the 244 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. rliinoceros by the track of the log, that has ploughed along the ground, and the animal is killed by lances or by the sword. The hide of a rhinoceros will produce seven shields ; these are worth about two dollars each, as simple hide, before manufac- ture. The horn is sold in Abyssinia for about two dollars per pound, for the manu- facture of sword-hilts, which are much esteemed if of this material." The rhinoceros is sometimes hunted with the sabre, the hunter galloping up behind and severing the hamstrings. Uulike the ele])hant the rhinoceros can walk on three legs, so one cut does not disable him. The Abyssinian form (keitloa) measures only five feet six to five feet eight inches at shoulder. The power of scent is so good that it detects a stranger at five hundred or six hundred yards. Baker observes that a rhinoceros will generally charge down u]ion the object that it smells but does not see, rushing with three loud whiffs resembling a jet of steam from a safety valve. In thick jungle such a charge may be very unpleasant. The cry is insignificant, not unlike the harsh, shrill sound of a jienny trumpet. The o-cnus Cerutorldmis differs from the African forms and agrees with the follow- ing genus in the arrangement of the teeth. It possesses two horns, and although its skin is not folded into shields as in the rhinoceros, yet the marking off of a distinct cape over the shoulder, and a similar if less distinct fold on the haunch, indicate that the two species to be now described occupy in this respect a position intermediate between the African and Indian forms. The internal anatomy bears out this view of the generic distinctness of the Sumatran rhinoceros. The best known species, C. siima- trensis, is not confined to Sumatra, but is found in Borneo as well as on the Malaccan peninsula. The skin is of a dark slate color, thinly covered with black hairs more than an inch long, situated mostly on the back and outsides of the legs. The entire length is about eight feet, exclusive of the tail, which measures twenty-two inches. The ears are lined with black hairs not merely fringed, and there is no gland at the back of the feet as in the Indian rhinoceros. ('. lasiotis, recently separated as a distinct species by Mr. Sclater, is perhaps a northern representative of the Sumatran species, being found in Chittagong and Assam. It differs from it in various imjjortant points, being taller by six inches at the shoulder, and having a smoother and jialer skin. The ears have a distinct hairy fringe, and are much wider apart, while the tail is shorter and terminated by a tuft of long brown hairs. The general color is light brown, owing to the rufescent hairs which are longer and finer than in the allied species. The one-horned species of rhinoceros form the genus Rhinoceros in the narrower sense of the term, and includes two species, R. indicus and R. sondaicus. The former apjHMrs to be confined to the Terai region of Nejiaul and Bhootan and to the ujjper valley of the BraJimapootra in Assam. It is one of the largest species, attaining a length of ten feet six inches, and half that height at the shouldei-. The skin is folded over into a complete series of shields, each of which is again marked off into tubercles of an irregularly round outline. From between these tubercles arise, especially in young animals, the few coarse hairs which the animal possesses. The skin on the hinder parts of the cheeks may possess tubercles of gi'eater size, occasionally in older animals of almost horn-like appearance. A folded collar surrounds the neck and hangs down into a rigid dewlap lielow. Over the withers is a single shield of somewhat triangular form, the point projecting backwards ; above each fore-leg is another of sim- ilar shape, arranged in such a manner as to form a cape over the neck and shoulders. The trunk is covered with the thick skin marked off into tubercles, but the hind- Bhinoceros indiciis, Indian rhinoceros. UNGULATES. 245 quarters have each a heavy shield hanging down as far as the knee-joint, and sub-divid- ed near the top by a less deep longitudinal fold running towards the root of the tail. The tail is sparingly haired towards the extremity, the hairs being coarse and bristly like those on the margin of the somewhat long and narrow ears. The horn may attain a length of three feet, but is generally less in the specimens found in captivity. Sclater has recorded that, in the Zoological Gardens in London, a male and a female rhinoc- eros of this species were placed in adjoining enclosures, and the male, in the course of his attempts to tear up the strong iron railing separating him from his companion, tore off his horn. Although the result was evidently painful, and was accompanied by a considerable flow of blood, still a new horn began to replace the old one. It is not to be doubted that such reproduction of a lost horn may also take place in nature, giving rise in certain cases to horns of abnormal form. Sclater also states that an old female which had been a long time in the gardens had, by always working at the bars of her cage, caused the horn to grow straight forwards instead of upwards. The Javanese species, B. sondaicus, is much smaller than the other, from which it is distinguished by a separate saddle-shaped shield over the nape of the neck, behind which is the cape over the withers and shoulders. The upper lip is also much larger and more extensile. It was formerly thought to be confined to Java, but is now known to extend north into British Burmah, and the Sunderbans of Bengal, as well as into Borneo. A Malay offered Mr. Bock, in Borneo, a fine specimen of one of the horns of this species, for w hich he wanted eighty florins. This fancy price was occasioned by the demand which exists for rhinoceros horns among the Chinese, who use them as medi- cine, or rather ointment for healing wounds, and especially snake bites. The horns of other species appear to be regarded with great respect in various eastern countries, as drinking-cups made of them are said to show at once the presence of poison in the cup. Although the living species of rhinoceros are so few in number and so limited in their geographical distribution, such was not the case in former geological ]ieriods. Professor Cope recognizes some twenty-seven fossil species, of which more than half ranged through North America in miocene times. All probably descended from tapir-like Lophiodontidre, which are abundant in eocene strata both in Europe and America, and the genus Triplopus of Cope, from the upper eocene of Wyoming, was likely a link in the chain of descent. One of the eai'liest European rhinoceroses, Aceratherium, from lower miocene strata, had four toes on the fore-feet, and no horn. Cosnojms, from the White River formation, is the nearest ally of that genus, but has only three toes on the fore-feet. AphelojJS, from higher miocene strata, had not yet acquired the horn, but possessed the reduced number of teeth characteristic of the more recent rhinoceroses. The Dicera- therium of Professor Marsh, one of the earliest of the American genera, had a tuberosity for a horn on each nasal bone, — a peculiarity inherited fi-om some of the tapir-like eocene ancestors, but not transmitted to any more recent forms. The rhinoceroses died out in America at the end of the miocene ]ieriod ; not so, howevei", in the old world, for, apart from the li\ing species described, three, belonging to a distinct genus (Coelodonta), in which the septum of the nostrils was more or less ossified, ranged over the whole of Europe and North Asia in pliocene times. One of these, li. antiqnitatis or tichorkinus, persisted after the mammoth, and every now and then in Siberia more or less well-preserved frozen carcases of this extinct animal 246 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. lire found. The most recent find of this sort was in 1877 on a tributary of the Jaua, where a complete carcase of an immature animal was unearthed. All the tissues were much dried up, except a thick layer of fat underneath the skin. Tlie head only and a hoof were preserved. This species is sometimes known as the Woolly Rhinoceros from the abundant hair. The front half of the head is covered with thick short hair, but the hinder half, the ears and neck, bear wool, in which stiff hairs from one to two inches in length were intermingled. The general color of the coat varied from fawn color to reddish-yellow. Remains of grass-like food were found between the teeth. There is no prehensile ujiper lip like what we have seen to be characteristic of all the living forms except the African white rhinoceros. This species further resembles the African congener in having two horns, and no dermal shields on the trunk. An allied form, J\. mcrki, is found under similar circumstances, an entire carcase having been recently discovered near Werknejansk, East Siberia. The family Equid-e, including the horses, asses, and zebras, although now confined, as far as its wild representatives are concerned, to Asia and Africa, was nevertheless at one time widely spread over the surface of the globe, and it has been possible for American pala?ontologists, with the rich fossil remains in our pliocene and miocene strata, to construct a complete pedigree leading back to the Palteotheridte. The following particulars are characteristic of the living members of the family. The skin is soft and hairy, with the exception of the horny patches (chestnuts) on the inner surface of both, or only the fore, pairs of legs ; and those behind the joint between the metapodial and pastern bones (the ergot or spur). The hair forms a mane on the neck, and a more or less bushy tail. The weight of the body is supported upon the third toes alone in both fore and hind feet (hence " Solidungula " and " Solipeda "), the terminal joints of these being broadened out into a ' coffin ' bone which is clad with the hoof . The so-called 'splint bones' are the oiily representatives of the second and fourth toes, and are the upper ends of the metacarpals and meta- tarsals of these, the joints of the toes not being present at all. The nietapodials of the third toes are so extremely long that the wrist and ankle joints form about the middle of the leg, and are known respectively as the 'knee' and 'hock.' The outer bones of the fore-arm and leg, the ulna and fibula, can hardly be said to enter into the formation of these joints, for only their upper ends ai-e distinctly separate, while tiie lower are fused with the radius and tibia. The peculiar foi-m of the joints of the third toe has introduced several terms into veterinary anatomy; thus the first joint is the 'pastern' or 'fetter' bone, the second the 'coronary,' and the last the coffin bone. Behind the metapodio-phalangeal joint, are two sesamoid bones, and behind that between the coronary and coffin bones, a third, the so-called navicular. The hoof closely surrounds the coffin bone ; its dense part, the ' wall,' is only formed on the anterior and lateral surface of the bone ; the greater part of the under surface is covered by the 'sole' V>ounded by the wall externally. The 'frog' is a horny mass projecting towards the sole between the 'bars' of the wall, diverging behind to the heels of the frog, which are continuous above and at the sides with the 'coronaiy frog-band.' The skull is much elongated and the lower jaw much ele- vated behind. The milk teeth are arranged according to the following formula, (". 3, c. I, m. I ; of the grinders the first milk grinder is not re])laced by a ]iernianent molar, so that the adult foruuila is /. §, c. \, m. f. The upper canines in the adult are late of development and may not appear in the mare. There is a wide diastema (gap UNGULATES. 247 where the bit lies) between the eanines and the grinders in both jaws. The incisor teeth are i^eculiar in having a foUl of enamel pushed in from the surface, like the point of a glove finger turned in, the cavity of which fold is filled with cement and discolored particles of food. When the surface of tlie tooth is worn thei-e is consequently an inner ring of enamel round this central cavity ; this constitutes the mark by which one may tell the age of a horse, for when all the incisor teeth are worn below the level of the fold, which occurs about the eighth or ninth year, the mark disappears and the horse is aged. The outermost of the ]jermaiient incisors does not push out its milk predecessor until the fifth year, and it is when these teeth, the ' corner nippers,' rise to a working level that the 'colt' becomes a 'horse' and the 'filly' a 'mare.' The molar teeth of the horse ai-e characterized by their great length before they divide into fano's ; the surfaces have folds of enamel like the incisors, but the walls of the folds are much plaited, so that wlien much worn down the enamel line and the surfaces outside and inside it have a very complex form. The above are some of the most important features in which the Equidie differ from the foregoing families of Perissodactyla. It is well to remember that all of them are specializations adapting the animals to speedy locomotion on dry land, and to the change of food which a life in deserts and elevated ])lateaus brings with it. Such changes have necessarily otherwise affected the habits of the animals. Their safety on the plains on which they dwell is insured by their gregarious habits, by their acute sense of hearing, and by their being able to warn their comrades witli a loud, sonorous neigh, or a harsh bray. The herds are often of large size, formed of numerous families, asso- ciated for mutual protection, wliich are composed of a leading stallion and as many mares as he can keep with lum. The foaling time is generally in the s]iring of the year, the female carrying her young for eleven months. The foals are weaned at five or six months, are able to jiropagate themselves at two years, and become adult about five. The various species have been artificially crossed by man, and are foun'sew(ihkii cannot be the tarjian, as described liy Rytchkof, Gmelin, Pallas, and others. Rytchkof describes the tarpan as equal in size to an average horse, but rounder in shape, color dun or bluish, other shades exceptional, with larger head than the Kirghiz horse. 254 NATURAL HI STORY OF MAMMALS. " Gmelin remarks tliat the largest of the wihl horses is scarcely to be compared, for size, with the smallest of domesticated breeds. The head is very large in proportion to the rest of the body ; the fears are pointed, and either of the same size as those of the domesticated animal or long and pendulous like those of the ass; the eyes are fiery, the mane very short and cui-ly ; the tail in some instances thick, in others scanty, and always shorter than in the domesticated animal ; the color is invariably that of the mouse, with an ashy shade underneath the belly, whilst the legs, from the knee downwards, are black; the coat is long and thick, more like fur to the touch than horse-hair. From these descrijitious of the tarpaii, or wild horse, by Gmelin and Pal- las, it is evident they were unacquainted with Equus przeinahkii, and Rytchkof liad, perhaps, only accidentally 'heard of it when he mentioned a horse of dun color. As to tarpans of blue and other colors, mentioned by Rytchkof, they were such as had probably resumed a feral state in the same way as those described by Gmelin and and Pallas. If it could be proved that £quus przewalskii had ever been indigenous further west, and if when crossed with the domestic breed, unlike all the asinine tribe it produced a fruitful jirogeny, some secrets in the history of our domestic horse might be brought to light, a conjecture partly confirmed by Rytchkof himself when he refers to the dun-colored tarpans in the neighborhood of Jaik, in company with blue and other colored tarpans. It also gathers consistency from the testimony of Pallas as to the habit of tarpan stallions, although in this instance ncjt of pure breed, to entice mares away from domestic herds ; and if from this internii.vture of blood were born descendants, these may have shown marks characteristic also of Equus przewalskii. To these may be referred the characteristic of the mixed breed noticed by Gmelin, viz., ' legs from knee to hoof black.' The converse might also occur, as stallions from half-wild troops ojvned by the nomads of Asia might entice mares from the wild herds, and a peculiar mixture of color and breed would result from this union. It may be considered very probable that Equus przeicalskii would give parentage to a fruitful progeny when intermingled with the domestic animal, and perhaps the wild herd of parti-colored tar])ans was the result of this cross-breeding. On the other hand, it is also probable that the domestic horse, varying in color, size, and shape, is the descend- ant of a variety of wild, now extinct breeds. That Equus pi-zewalsTcii may have been indigenous further to the west, not only on the Jaik or Ui-al of the present day Init even lieyond, in northeastern Eurojie, is highly probable, judging from the history of its companions in the steppes of Central Asia. " The saigak antelope, in the dihnlal ejwch, was met with at the Carjiathians, where its bones have been discovered, together with stone implements, in caves. Remnants of the skull of a saigak have also been found in the Volga valley near Sarepta. Not longer ago than the end of the last century the saigak was vei'v nnnierons in West Siberia ; and Pallas mentions having neen herds of this antelope on the Irtish below Semipalatinisk, where it is now never met with and has been completely forgotten. It is even rare at the present day in the environs of Lake Balkash, where not long since it -was as numerous as the kulan, large herds of this last-named animal having in Rytchkof's time roamed near the Jaik. In my last excursion to Balkash, during several days passed in its solitudes I did not observe a kulan, and only saw the tracks of one imprinted on the saline soil. These animals still exist in large numbers in the little-inhabited steppes of eastern Dzungaria and western Mongolia. A similar fate has probably befallen Equv.s przeimlskii., whose habitat has now been discovered to be the same as that of the saigak, the kulan, and wild camel. If this horse was indigenous UNGULATES. 255 at any time further to the west and became closely allied to the troops of domesticated horses owned by the nomads, it would of course be the object of the keenest pursuit, and would the sooner disappear from its earlier habitat. But there exist herds in more remote paits of Asia called wild by Colonel Przewalsky. ' Wild horses, called by the Mongols dzerlik-adu, ai'e rare in western Tsaidani, but more numerous near Lob-Nor. They are generally in large herds, very shy, and when frightened continue their Hight for days, not returning to tiie same place for a year or two. Their color is uniformly bay, with black tails and long manes hanging down to the ground. They are never hunted, owing to the difficulties of the chase.' One specimen of Equus jyvzeioalskii is about three years of age ; in size it is no bigger tlian the kulan and djiggetai ; its head is nearly of the same length as tliat of those animals, but lower and better shajied near the end of the muzzle and nasal bones, with shorter ears tlian those of the wild ass. Its size is decidedly small in proportion to its head. In shape it takes after the liorse ; its legs are relatively thick for the size of its body, its hoofs rounder and l)roader, and its tail better furnished with hair than in the case of the wild ass. Its color is dun, with a yellomsh tinge on the back, becoming lighter towards the flanks, and almost white under the belly. ' Its hair is long and wavy, brick-red on the head and nasal bones ; of the same color Init longer on the cheeks and about the lower jaws. Tlie extremity of the nose is covered with almost white hairs, a remarkable contrast to the brick-red on the upper part of the liead. A short, upright (hogged) mane extends from between the ears to the withers, of a dai"k brown color, with long yellowish hairs on the margins. It has no stripe of the same color as the mane along the back, as all Asiatic asses and dun horses have, and a hardly perceptible one along the pelvis. The upjier half of the tail is of the same color as the back; it is longer, thicker at the root, and more bushy than that of any kind of ass; half way down the tail yellowish hairs are mixed with the brown, and the extremity is dark bro«n or nearly black. The fore-legs are brown near the hoofs and on the knees, and oblique indistinct bars of lirown hair extend down the legs. The prevailing color of the lower part of the fore- legs is brown, a peculiarity never known to t)ccur \\ith wild asses, these having only a narrow, barely-distinguishable, l>rown margin round the ui)per rim of the hoof. Dark hairs also occur on the hind-legs about the hoofs and much higher." From our account of these various ^Vsiatic forms it will be seen that the origin of the domesticated horse still remains obscure ; the further study of the new species here described may, however, lead to further revelations touching this interesting point. Powakof's account of E. przciralskii concludes with the following suggestions: "The congeners of Equus 2)rzewalskii, occu]iying an enormous extent of territory in Enrojje and Asia, as we are led to infer from then- fossil remains, may have been still more varied and multiform ; and the first to be tamed were probably those on the outskirts of the great barren ste])pes, nihabiting well-watered and hilly tracts near one or other of these land-locked water basins, tlie earliest abodes of primeval man. In such regions in Siberia fossil remains of the stone period have been discovered by me and other ex]ilorers, whilst the outlying mountains of the Tian-Shan and Pamirs will doubtless afford many moi-e. The jiriineval horse indigenous in these localities may have been more easily Ijrought under subjection than its fellows in the steppes, and may have presented some such relationshi]i to our Equus przewalshii as exists between the kiang and the djiggetai and kulan. Afterwards descending with man from the more favored hilly region, they may have together entered the plains, where human activity appears to have been of a moi'e recent date, probably in the bronze aiul iron period. 256 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. But liowever this may have been, Equus przeiculskii is the sole wild species having- close affinity with the horse (our domesticated Equus caballus) P Although the origin of the horse is thus still a matter for further research, naturalists are agreed that no such difficulty exists concerning the ass. Two forms of wild ass are known (those of Syria and Africa), which may be distinct sjjeeies or only geographical varieties, l)ut there is no doubt that both of these may be caught and tamed very easily, that the wild ones are frequently used for improving the domesticated stock, and that the ass in countries at a distance from the home of these species is probably due to an intermixture of both. All are characterized by the transverse shoulder stripe, the long ears, and by the extremely harsh bray ; the latter is especially heard at breeding-time, and among the wild forms serves to apprise their comrades of danger. The Syrian Wild Ass, according to Brehm the Onager of the ancients, {E. he~ niippun), stretches from Syria tlu-ough Arabia and Persia to India. Smaller than the UNGULATES. 257 kulan, which it resembles in its habits, it is nevertheless considerably larger than the common ass. It approaches the latter in the greater size of the head and length of tlie ears, but its noble carriage, cleaner limbs, and finer coat sufficiently distinguish it. The coat is silvery wliite, tending towards a pale fawn color on the sides. The dorsal stripe is brown, and the transverse shoulder stripe is also jjreseut. The Indian Ghur-Khur, or wild ass of Cutch, has sometimes been described as distinct {E. indicus), but Sclater has no doubt of its identity with the Syrian form ; in fact he considers both these and the domesticated animals to have descended from the following species, and consequently regards Abyssinia as the centre of distribution of the ass. The African "Wild Ass, E. tceniopus, inhabits the tract of country lying between the Nile and the Red Sea. It does not seem to be confined to any particular sort of ground, but occurs in the liighlands of Abyssinia as well as in the desert plains towards the north. The species is sufficiently distinguished by the marked transverse shoulder sti-ipes, and the indistinct rings on the legs. Sir S. Baker, in the accounts of his travels through this j)art of Africa, refers frequently to the wild asses, as well as to the domesticated breed, wliich is unquestionably deriveil from them, and which is very largely employed for transport. In reference to the wild ass, he says: — " Those who have seen donkeys in their civilized state have no conception of the beauty of the wild, or original animals. It is the perfection of activity and courage, and has a high-bred tone in the deportment, a high-actioned step when it trots freely over the rocks and sand, with the speed of a horse wlien it gallops over the boundless desert. His color is reddish-cream, tinged with the shade most prevalent of the ground that it inhabits. Thus it mucli resembles the sand of the desert. " I shot one fine specimen, a male, in excellent condition, although the miserable pasturage of the desert is confined to the wiry herbage already mentioned ; of this the stomach was full, chewed into morsels like chopped reeds. His height was about 13.3 or 14 hands, the shoulder was far more sloping than that of the domestic ass, the hoofs were remarkable for their size, width and firmness, being as broad as those of a horse of fifteen hands." The flesh of the African wild ass is appreciated as food just as much as is that of its Syrian congenei-. Not so the domesticated animal ; it would appear sometimes not to be so clean a feeder as the wild form, for Baker narrates a case where his asses developed scavengering propensities, and another where they prospered on antelope flesh when herbage was scarce. The Ass {E. asinus) was probably one of the first quadrupeds subjugated by man. Lenormant states that it was era))loyed hy the ancient Egyptians from the earliest mon- utnontal times, the horse not having been introduced till 1900 B.C. An explanation of this fact is afforded by the ease with wliich the wild ass may be tamed, and the entire change of nature which it undergoes when deprived of liberty. This change involves a loss of s])irit, which is often exaggerated by ill-treatment in northern countries, where the ass is chiefly the property of the poorer classes. The remarkable uniformity in external characteristics which such asses exhibit has been attributed to the ages of neglect and degradation which they have undergone. The same result has befallen the asses used by the poorer classes in Western India, which are so degraded in size that they are no bigger than a Newfoundland dog. In the continent of Euro])e, however, and in the East, and even after quite recent artificial selection, external variation is as marked as is observed in many others of our domesti- voL. v. — 17 258 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. cated animals. In Syria alone four breeds are recognized, and if equally careful selection were attended to in more northern countries there is little doubt but tliat improvement would result.- Only in the southern part of Europe and in certain eastern lands must we look for domesticated asses still characteiized by some of the fleetness, nobility of carriage, and fineness of coat of the wild species. In Persia, Arabia, and Egypt much attention is paid to the breeding of an animal possessed not only of great strength, and thus forming an excellent beast of burden, but also suited to desert districts as it I'equires Fig. 129. — Equus asinus, ass. comparatively little water, and is able to subsist on dry forage. In northern coun- tries the ass still evinces signs of being originally a desert animal, for it frequently refuses to cross water, and delights in rolling in the dust. Such inherited traits also remind us of the frequent appearance of transverse stripes on the legs, especially of foals, which is unquestionably a " reversion " to the condition typical of the African wild ass. Even more valuable than the ass, as a beast of burden, and combining its hardiness with the strength of the horse, is the hybrid Mule, which has been known from very early times, and which is of immense service in mountainous districts, such as are met UNGULATES. 259 with in Spain and South America. The cross between a male ass and a mare is called a ' mule ; ' that between a female ass and a stallioTi a ' hinny.' Very singular in such hybrids is the prepotency of the ass over the horse : this is especially noticeable in the mule, which invariably resembles the father more than the mother. It is worthy of remark that these hybrids are for the most part sterile : instances of the contrary are recorded, but they are very exceptional. This sterility, however, is by no means incompatible with the vitality of the animal ; in fact in sagacity, comparative streno-th, and sure-footedness the mule appears even to surpass both parents. It requires lono-er time to attain its full strength than its parents do, but is decidedly longer-lived. Darwin narrates that the troops of mules in South America are each led by steady old mares, the "madrina" (godmother) carrying a bell. Such is the affection of the mules for their madrina that it is almost impossible to lose them. A mule will cai'ry as much as four hundred pounds on a level road, three hundred in a mountainous dis- trict, and the muleteers are so familiar with their animals that they know to a pound how much they can carry, and which may be trusted with the most fragile article. Three forms of striped horses occur in South Africa, the quagga, Burchell's zebra, and the zebra. The two former are found on the plains, but the latter is entirely confined to mountainous districts. They are occasion.ally referred to a sub- genus, Ilippotigris. The Quagga {Equus quagga) stand four feet six inches high at the withers, and measures eight feet six inches in extreme length. The legs are white in color, some- what robust, but clean and sinewy. The ears and tail are distinctly horse like, the latter white and flowing below the hocks. The upper parts are of a reddish brown hue, which fades off to white below and behind ; but the face, neck, and fore parts of the trunk are banded with dark brown stripes, \3'hich become fainter and more irregular backwards. A dark line runs along the middle of the back, widening over the crupper. According to Harris : — " The geographical range of this species of the quagga does not appear to extend to the northward of the river Vaal. The animal was formerly extremely common within the colony, but vanishing before the strides of civilization is now to be found in very limited numbei's, and on the borders only. Beyond, on those sultry plains which are completely taken possession of by wild beasts, and may with strict propriety be termed the domain of savage nature, it occurs in interminable herds, and although never intermixing with its own more elegant congeners is almost invariably to be found ranging u-ith the white-tailed gnu, and with the ostrich, for the society of which bird especially it evinces the most singular predilection. Moving slowly across the profile of the ocean-like horizon, uttering a shrill barking neigh, of which its name forms a correct imitation, long files of quaggas continually remind the early traveller of a rival caravan upon its march. Bands of many hundreds are tlius seen frequently during their migration from the dreary and desolate plains of some portion of the interior which has formed their secluded abode, seeking for those more luxuriant pastures where, during the summer months, various herbs thrust forth their leaves and flowers to form a green carpet spangled with hues the most brilliant and diversified. "In its native character the tiuagga appears to be social and peaceable, living care- lessly, sometimes in troops not exceeding twentj^ or thirty, but oftener in much larger communities. The average standard, both of the males and females, is from twelve to thirteen hands. Doubtless it might readily be subdued by bit and bridle, and if not capable of universal distj'ibution would, in its native regions at least, where food and 260 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. climate are congenial, rewai'd fourfold by its services the trouble attendant upon its education. Foals have indeed occasionally been reared when thrown accidentally into the hands of the peasant, hut r.o systematic attempts have yet been made on the part of the indolent colonists to reduce the species to a state of domesticated subjection ; and the earni\orous savage tribes occupying the regions which now form its habitat rei^ard it, in coninion with the rest of the animal creation, only as furnishing them with an ample repast when slain. By the roving clans of Bechuana huntsmen, and the voracious Bushmen hordes, its disgustingly oily, yellow flesh is even esteemed a deli- cacy ; and tlie lion, which invariably follows the tide of migration towards new pastures. Fig. 129. — Equus quat/ga, quagga. is not unfrequently driven from his prey at the assegai's point by these two-legged devonrers of carrion. The flesh is never used by the colonists excc])t for the purpose of feeding their tame Bushmen, but the hides are valuaVile for making sacks to contain grain, and the thicker portions which cover the angle of the hocks are greatly esteemed for the uuxnufacture of shoe soles." Resembling the quagga in general foi"m and size, but approaching more closely to the zebra in coloring, Burchell's Zebra is unquestionably one of the most beautiful of quadrupeds. Its variegated coat has gained for it the name Bonte Quagga from the Dutch colonists; it is the Peetsey of the Matabele and Bechuana, and the I^(pius burchellii of naturalists. It shares with the quagga the equine ears and tail, the latter / \ (; f. 'y- ^^^&!ki '7^ UNGULATES. 261 being tbirty-tivo inches long, white, and flowing; the belly and legs are also pure white, with tlie exception of some indistinct transverse bars on the ujjper part of the latter. Its crest-like mane is striped black and white, contrasting with the brilliant sienna ground color of the head, neck, and body. AH of these parts are traversed by black and dark brown bands, Avhich are by no means so regular as those of the zebra, but running in various directions, and forking, give rise to more complicated tioures. The bands do not join the median black stripe, which widens slightly over the croup. The Zebra of modern naturalists, Wilde Paard of the Dutch colonists, and Daow of the Hottentots {Equus montanus or zebra), is the most handsomely striped of this group of the horses. It is the least horse-like of its immediate allies, for its ears and tail are distinctly asinine and not equine as in the two foregoing forms. It stands four feet high at the withers, and eight feet two inclies in extreme length. The body is SJ^umetrical and the legs particularly clean, wiry, and slender. Tlie tail is sixteen inches in length, transversely banded at the root, and tufted with lilaek hair at the extremity. The coat is white, but everywhere, except on the under surface of the belly, marked with glossy black stripes, which run above into the dorsal line, and into the somewhat bushy upright mane. The legs are also striped down to the hoofs both inside and out ; the ear is marked with two bay bands, and the face striped with brown. Unlike the two preceding species the zebra has only two instead of four mamma?. As to the habits and occurrence of this species we quote the following from Harris : — "Restricted to the mountainous districts of Africa, from Abyssinia to the southernmost portions of the Cajie of Good Hope, this beautiful and wary animal never by its own free will descends into tlie jilain, as erroneously asserted by older naturalists, and it therefore never herds with either of its congeners, the quagga and Burchell's zebra, whose habitat is equally limited to the open and level woodlands. Seeking the wildest and most sequestered spots, the haughty troops are exceedingly difficult of approach as well on account of th^ir watchful habits and extreme agility and fleetness of foot, as from the abrupt and inaccessible nature of their highland abode. Under the special charge of a sentinel, so posted on some adjacent crag as to command a view of every avenue of approach, the chequered herd is to be viewed grazing on the steep hillside, or perambulating some rocky ledge on which the rifle-ball alone can reach them, many a keen-eyed vulture sailing majestically at their feet, over the bosom of the deeji blue valley. No sooner has the note of alarm been sounded by the vidette than, pricking their long ears, the whole flock hurry forward to ascertain the nature of the approach- ing danger, and having gazed for a moment at the advancing hunter, whisking their brindled tails aloft, helter skelter, away they thunder down craggy precipices, and over 3'awning ravines, where no less agile foot could dare to follow them. " Although inhabiting the lofty and broken mountain chains to the eastward, that divide Caffraria from the country of the Bechuanas, the zebra occurs in none of the more tropical liills that we visited, and thus proved one of the few game quadrupeds of which no specimen was observed by our party. Small herds still exist within the colonial limits, among the rugged environs of Graaff-Reinet especially, as well as in the mountainous districts of George, which notoriously form one of the chosen cantons of the species ; and it was during a visit to the proprietor of a farm in the latter neighbor- hood that I realized on our homeward journey the gay spoils of the wilde paard which now grace my collection of trophies. The capture and sale of the foals forms no inconsiderable addition to Mynheer's revenues, his numerous sturdy scions devoting a 262 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. large portion of their time to the chase of the shy herds — forcing the stragglers occa- sionally from the mountain fastnesses, and annually disposing of the fruits of their skill with the lasso, for exportation, chiefly to the Mauritius, where they are often whmisically trained to harness." Sub-Order II. — Artiodactyla. The even-toed ungulates (Paridigitata) include all cloven-footed quadrupeds, and consequently by far the greater number of our domesticated animals. The toes are generally four or two in number, the first digit being entirely lost in our living forms, and the second and fifth being often quite rudimentary. The essential point about the foot structure is that the axis of the legs being produced passes between the third and fourth toes, and not through the third as in the Perissodactyla. The third and fourth toes are thus, taken singly, not symmetrical, while taken together they form a sym- metrical pair. Compared with the Perissodactyla the Artiodactyla have fewer trunk vertebrte, almost always nineteen ; the number of those that bear ribs differs much in different forms. The complexity of the stomach, and the smaller length of the caecum are further points of contrast with the Perissodactyla, which we shall have the opportunity of elucidating further on. Reference has already been made to the likelihood of the Artiodactyla and Perisso- dactyla having descended from a common stock, and also to the peculiarities of foot and tooth-structure which living and fossil Artiodactyla exhibit. If before proceeding to discuss the living representatives of this order, we first review the fossil forms from the standpoint indicated, we shall find the crescent-toothed forms greatly predominate in point of numbers over those with tubercular teeth. Of the latter only the pigs and hippopotami survive to represent the extinct Palceochcerus and Chmrotherium., while certain other tubercular-toothed forms in which the foot-structure was reduced on the inadaptive plan {iiide p. 1234) have left no successors. Such was the two-toed Entelodon of the early miocene period. Again, among the crescent-toothed forms the same phenomenon reappears. The inadaptive way of reduction was first adopted and led from four-toed forms like Botfiriodon, Dichobime, and Hyopotamus of eocene strata, to the cloven-footed A7ioplotherium, J^phodon, and JDiplocus of miocene strata. These, however, left no descendants. They were as richly developed in their charac- teristic period as the ruminants at the present day, for some small forms of Hyo- potamus are known as small as a rabbit, others, like Anthracotherium, as large as a hippopotamus; but they were superseded in the struggle for existence by the descendants of some forms which separated from the main stock at the early part of the eocene period, and which, following the adaptive plan of reduction of the foot, in \irtue of which the toes gradually gained a footing on the whole surface of the wrist and ankle-joint, gave rise to the crescent-toothed forms of the present day. The intermediate stages are little known, but the camels were probably descended from Poebrotherium, the che-\Totains from an extinct form resembling Syomoschiis, and the ruminants proper from some form like Gelocus. The Artiodactyla are usually sub-divided into the non-mminating and the ruminate ing forms. In speaking of the fossil species, tliis grouping answers to the two lines of development indicated above, for the non-ruminating forms are typically tubercular- toothed, the ruminating crescent-toothed in accordance with their omnivorous and UNGULATES. 263 herbivorous habits respectively. Botli in respect to the teeth and the toes the non- ruminating forms are less modified from the primitive artiodactyle type, for as we shall see there is a tendency among the ruminants to the reduction of both of these ■organs in number. We shall therefore describe the non-ruminating forms in the first place. They constitute the first of the super-families, and include the pigs and the hippopotami. Supek-Family I. — SUINA. The skin in this group is either hairless or beset with bristles. Horns are never present, but, as is the case even among ruminants occasionally, their absence is fre- quently compensated by great tusk-like canine or incisor teeth. The stomach is compound, but the groove which renders possible the return of the food to the mouth for the chewing of the cud is absent. The placenta is diffuse in all. The pigs and their allies have been called Setigera, as the skin is more or less thickly beset with bristles. The term Suid^e is, however, preferable for the family. Fig. 130. — Skeleton ot wild boar, Sus scrofa. The head is prolonged into a snout, which is pointed or truncated ; the bod}' is smaller and less clumsy than in the next family, and its weight is carried on tlie third and fourth toes, while the second and fifth are shortened into after-claws, and do not touch the ground altliough all their bones are present. In the peccary the fifth is more rudi- mentary than in the j)ig. A further peculiarity which marks out the Suidse of the new world from those of the old is the difference in the number of young. There are eight or ten teats and large litters in the one groujj, but only two teats, and, as a rule, one young in the peccaries. Six genera have been distinguished in this family. Some of those which are most closely related to the pig are certainly not so distinct as the peccary, but the employment of the separate generic names will facilitate the description of the various forms. The domesticated hogs and a number of wild animals scattered over Europe, Asia, and the Malay Islands, belong to the genus Siis. In ail of these the ears are ovate and hairy, the tail moderate in length and tufted at the extremity. The face and snout are of conical form and are destitute of the j^rotuberances found in some other genera, although one or two species {S. verrucosus) have warts upon the ei'ior in some respects to that of the hog, gaining in 'gaminess' what it loses in fat; during the rutting season it is, however, too rank to be edible. The wild pigs of Hindostan, which afford to the British resident the amusement of 'pig-sticking,' belong to the species S. cristatus, closely allied to the European wild boar. The specific name refers to the well-marked mane of bristles along the dorsal line. The general color is yellowish brown, but the cheeks have a white beard. These pigs live in the imjienetrable jungle, which they leave only when seeking food in the plantations, or when driven by natives or jungle fires into the open fields. They are pursued on horseback, the rider forcing up his horse to the side of the boar, and delivering a spear, after the manner of driving a javelin, into his flanks. Like the European wild animal the Indian boar is extremely courageous and a very formidable enemy. From the islands of the Malay Archipelago five or six distinct species of swine have been descrilied. Such are the led from the mainland, because we know that pigs take readily to water and swim well, a fact which explains their presence on some of these islands of the Malay Archipelago, where no other ungulate occurs. Australia, alone, is not inhabited by any member of the group in a wild state. S. vittatus, of Java, and A', loucomystax, of Japan, are the wild forms most nearly allied to the S. indicus from which all the eastern domesticated breeds are supposed to have been derived. Some authorities consider that this species had a wider distribu- tion than at the present day, not being confined to Asia but extending into Eurojae. It is to the admixture of the blood of the Eastern breeds that the best bred hogs owe the extreme shortness of the skull, for the northern Euro]iean breeds which come most closely to the wild boar are all marked by the length of the head and the legs. The Cliinese have had the pig under domestication for thousands of years, and it is no 266 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. doubt due to this circumstance that so great improvements have been effected in the breeds of other countries by crossing with the eastern animals. One of the most curious forms of domesticated pigs is that which is known as the Japanese Masked Pig; althougli it is looked on by many naturalists as merely a variety of the common Chinese species, others regard it as distinct (S. pliciceps), and the separate genus Centuriosus has even been established for it. It is of blackish gray color, white on the under ])arts, but is cliiefly remarkable for the regular, deep furrows ■on the face, aiid the large, rounded, pendulous ears, as well as for the thick fold of hard skin wliich hangs about the shoulders and rump. Its young are not striped, a suf- ficient indication that it has long been domesticated. Domestication has brought about certain very important changes in the hog. No longer dependent on the senses to apprise it of danger, its ears become much Fig. 131. — Siis pliciccps, niaskeJ pig. smaller and less movable. The organs of defence are not required, for the natural courage of the wild animal has almost entirely disappeared ; so we find the tusks much diminished in size. This change is of course partly attributable to the differ- ence in nature of the food and the ease with which it is obtained, a difference which also accounts for tlie greater length of the intestinal canal. The shape of the body is likewise altered ; the trunk becomes longer, the legs shorter and less muscular, but tlie insatiable appetite remains, so the excess of food is deposited in thicker layers of fat beneath the skin than are found in the wild animal, and the litters of the female are larger and more freijuent. The habits, also, undergo alteration, for instead of searcliing for food at night and resting in solitary lairs iny jilanls. Even this is not satisfactory, for the female, who must seek her food in the same way, does not possess them. I should be inclined to believe rather that these tusks were once useful, and were then worn down as fast as they grew ; but that changed conditions of life have rendered them unneces- sary, and they now develop into a monstrous form, just as the incisors of the beaver or rabbit will go on growing, if the o]i])ositc teeth do not wear them away. UNGULATES. 269 " Here also we have a resemblance to the wart-hogs of Africa, whose upj^er canines grow outward and curve up so as to foi"m a transition from the usual mode of gi-owth to that of the babirnsa. It is found all over Celebes, and in the Sulu islands, and also in Bouroo, the only sjsot l)c>yoiid the Celebes group to which it extends, and which island also shows some affinity to the Sulu islands in its birds, indicating, perhaps, a closer connection between them at some former period than now exists. At this time the babirusa may have entered Bouroo, since it probably survives as well as its allies the pigs. These are S2)read all over the Archipelago, even to several of the smaller islands, and in many cases the sjiecies are peculiar. It is evident, therefore, that they have some natural means of dispersal."' The peccaries {Dicotyles) constitute an interesting division of this family, and might even be separated under a distinct subfamily, so peculiar are they in many respects. One pair of the upper incisors has disappeared, so that the dental formula is i. |, c. |, m. |. Fig. 133. — Dicoiyles torqtmtus, collai'ed peceary. The teeth are much less tubercular than in the pig, the stomach is divided into three compartments, with a groove leading from the gullet direct towards the pyloric end, the metapodials of the third and fourth toes are coalesced into a cannon bone, and the outer toe of the foot is reduced to a splint bone, all peculiarities leading directly to the modifications which we regard as distinctly rununant. The peccaries thus con- stitute the most specialized group of non-ruminating artiodactyles. The peccaries do not cross with the hog, and very rarely breed in confinement. The Texan species, D. torquatus, is found throughout Mexico and as far north as the Red River of Arkansas, but the northern jiarts of South America must be i-egarded as the headquarters of this as well as the other species. It is abundant along the Rio Grande, where it is found along the water courses, generally singly but often in herds on the prairies. They are said to be ferocious when wounded, and when one of their number has been struck the remainder of the herd will take the offensive. The flesh is almost inedible, owing to a cutaneous gland opening on the rump, the secretion of 270 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. which is hardly less offensive than that of the skunk. The aperture of tliis gland is on the dorsal line opposite the navel, to which circumstance the genus owes its Linnrean name Dicotyles. Tliey are very shy in o])en ground, and when pursued immediately make for thickets, from which it is very difficult to drive them. Their food in Texas consists of acorns and pecan nuts, but in South America it is said to be by no means^ exclusively a vegetable-feeder. Unlike hogs they do not take to pools except in the very hottest weather, even then they do not wallow in the way characteristic of all species of pigs. The skin is much more thickly beset with bristles tlian in the pig generally ; these are particularly long ou the back of the head, the nape of the neck, Fig. 1^4, — Pkacochierus cctluopicus, wart hog. and the throat. The general color is dark brown mixed with yellowish, but an oblique white stripe on the neck and shoulders characterizes this species from the next, whence the name of Collared Peccary sometimes given to it. The peccary is little over three feet long, and sixteen inches high ; the legs are short and slender, and the tail quite rudimentary, containing only six vertebraa. The female only casts a single or, at most,, two young, and in accordance with this the teats are only two in number. The second species, D. labiatus, is some six inches longer and juoportionatcly higher; the tail is also somewhat longer, being comjiosed of nine joints. The shoulder-stripe of the preceding species is absent, bvit the lower jaw is colored white and the rest of the coat grayish black. The White-Lipped Peccary lives gregariously in the forests of Guiana, Brazil, Paraguay, and Peru, aiul frequently does immense UNGULATES. 271 damage to the plantations, invading them as it does in very large hordes. In many of their habits they resemble their northern congeners, but defend themselves when attacked with greater vigor than these. Their nocturnal habits render them somewhat diflicult of j^ursuit, but the aborigines shoot or spear them from trees, where they are safe from the attacks of the rest of the herd. A sentinel leads the whole lierd, which becomes totally disorganized should their leader fall. Water presents no obstacle to the peccaries, for they swim as well as the wild boar, and indicate their love for it further by bathing in muddy pools. The flesh of the white-lipped peccary is not so strong-tasted as to be offensive to the Indians, but it is not appreciated by the white inhabitants. The last genus of this family {P/utcoc/icerus) embraces the African Wart-Hogs, the most unsightly members of the groui>. The reduction in the number of teeth has gone on to a very remarkable extent, so that in the adult the incisors are only one pair in the upper jaw, although there are still the customary three i)airs in the lower. The canines- are enormously develoi)ed, and serve for rooting up the favori*tui(:)od of the creature. Both pairs curve upwards. Although five grinders appear in ,,. niuuth, only the hhidermost, with a mere remnant of the one in front, ate found in the old animal. These solitary molars are of great size, grow for a long time before the roots eventually close, and bear, on the masticating surface from six to fourteen pairs of tubercles, which get worn down into little islands of enamel. Owen observes that the monop- olizing of the masticatory process by one tooth in each jaw throws a great deal of light on the still more abnormal dentition of the elepliant. The commonest species from South Africa, P. cethiojncus, measures about two feet six inches at the shoulder. Its skin is reddish brown in color, and very scantily beset with bristles. The top of the head and the dorsal line along the back are, how- ever, armed with long rigid bristles which form a sort of dorsal mane. Under the enormous canines are long white whiskers. The common name is derived from the remarkable fleshy warts wdiich are situated behind each eye and behind tlie tusks. The ears are bordered with strong hair, the eyes placed high in the head, with black lashes and long brows. The tail, twenty inches long, straight and thin like the lash of a whip, is tufted with bristles. Unlike the last genus all the feet are four- toed, the side hoofs are small and loose, and the fore-feet have a callous pad. A second species, P. celiani, is found on the coast district of the Red Sea. Its sides are more scantily haired than those of its southern ally, but the bristles on the back and nape, and the whiskers are much longer. In certain respects the second family, Hippopotamidje (or Obesa), must be regarded as more specialized than the Suida?, whereas in others they exhibit more generalized features. The skin is extremely thick (almost two inches) ; they therefore well de- serve to be classed with the Pachydermata of the older zoologists. The family name Obesa embodies the ungainliness of the huge trunk and head, while the generic name. Hippopotamus., recalls the fact that tliis is one of the most amphibious of ungu- lates. Only two species are known, one of large size, II. amphihlus, common through- out the greater part of Africa, in which the body may be fourteen feet long and the head three, and a small species occurring on rivers of the west coast and those flowdng into Lake Tschad, H. liheriensis., which differs in so many important points from the eastern form that Professor Leidy formed the genus Vhoeropsis for its reception. 272 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. Tlie legs liave four toes, all of wliuli touch the ground, a more primitive condition than is found in the swine, while the teeth exhibit fewer incisors, and a molar pattern which points to the grass-eating habits of the animal, as does its complex stomach. In tliese points we observe something of the same sort of specialization which has led to the develo]iment of the ruminants from earlier tuberculai-toothed Artiodactyla. The incisors, four in number in each jaw, are short, straight tusks, separated by a MS;.!-'!'; . Fig. 135. — Hippopotamus amphibius, hippopotamus. median interval, while the canines are enormously developed, and are cur\ ed in such a way that the upper ones fit inside the lower, the contiguous surfaces being gr.idually worn flat. These tusks, the lower ones especially, may occasionally attain a very large size ; one lias been measured thirty inches on the curve, with a circumference of nine inches, and a weight of seventeen and one-half ])Ounds. Their ivory is valuable, for, not being liable to discoloration, it is occasionally einj)loyed by dentists for making artificial teeth. The tusks leave their trace in the rank herbage by the river banks, the UNGULATES. 273 ground in many |ilaces looking as if gone over with a harrow : they are also employed for tearing up aquatic weeds, on which the animals largely depend for food. The liquid constituents of the food pass, according to Dr. Chapman, directly into the second and third compartments of the four-divided stomach, while solid food remains for some time in the first portion. The comparison of tiie simple stomach of the pig with the more comple.Y organs of the peccary and hippopotamus is extremely interesting, showing as it does how the typical form of the organ in the ruminants, which we shall describe further on, has been evolved. The amphibious life has necessarily reacted on certain of the organs of the body. Thus the nostrils are extremely flexible, and may be tightly closed by muscular exertion wlien the animal is under water. Very often the hippopotamus is seen with nothing but the nostrils above the water, and then a direct passage of the air into the lungs is secured by the high larynx, which may be fitted up into the posterior nostrils in such a way as to prevent water getting into the respiratory passages. Dr. Chapman remarks that the blood is e.^tremely rich in colored disks, of small size, and as these serve to distribute oxygen to tlie- tissues, it is not improbable that their exceptional number renders it possible for the animal to remain under water as long as it does. The males are the most formidable to meet with ; the females, on the other hand, are of more amiable temperament, except when they have a calf to defend. They are most affectionate mothers. Bartlett records, that in the zoological gardens a calf was born which in half an hour was able to stagger about, followed and licked by the mother. The period of gestation is between seven and eight months. One of the most singular jx'culiarities of the hijipopotamus is the nature of the secre- tion of the sweat-glands, which has gained it the name of the "blood-sweating behe- moth," and which gives to the animal the reddish color which it has on first emerging from the water. There is no doubt that the color is due to the presence of blood cells, but it is ditticult to interpret their presence to such an extent in the perspiration. Schweinfurth, in his " Heart of Africa," gives the following account of his observa- tions on the hippopotamus : " The color of nearly all these animals was a dark, fleshy red, almost like raw meat, marked irregularly with large black spots. I also saw specimens of a lighter shade, but never of a pure white. In the sunshine their damp bodies assumed quite a bluish-gray hue. Plalf of the hippopotamuses that I noticed at this deep part of the river, which extended for about a mile, were females carrying their young, which at this season seemed very weak or undeveloped, and sat astride on the short necks of their mothers. The females appeared to rise to the surface of the water for the sake of their young, far more frequently than was necessary for their own accommodation, and unlike the males, which usually show their mouth and nos- trils, they only lifted their young above the water, whilst their own heads generally remained invisible. The animals seem to utter different sounds at different seasons; they now snorted and grunted, or, rather, groaned, and the sh.arp rattling gurgle was less distinct than in the spring. In the sunlight the fine spray emitted from their nostrils gleamed like a ray of light. Now and then, with a frightful roar that resounded far away, the males would leap violently from the water, dis]jlaying all the fore part of their huge bodies. They seemed to be scuflling together, but whether they were quarrelling for a monopoly of the limited space, or whether they had. been hit by some of my bullets, I could not determine. Their small, pointed ears were remarkably flexible, and were continually moving to and fro as the animals listened to distant sounds or flapped away the settling insects. VOL. v.— 18 274 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. " We were hard at work the following day in turning the huge carcass of the hippo- potamus to account for our domestic use. My people boiled down great flasks of the . fat which they took fron,i the layers between the ribs, but what the entire produce of grease would have been I was unable to determine, as hundreds of natives had already cut off and apjjrojiriated pieces of the flesh. When boiled, hippopotamus fat is very similar to jiork-lard, though in the warm climate of central Africa it never attains a consistency firmer than that of oil. Of all animal fats it appears to be the purest, and at any rate never becomes rancid, and will keep for many years without requiring any special process of clarifying. It has, however, a slight flavor of train-oil, to which it is difficult for a European to become accustomed. It is stated in some books that hip- popotamus bacon is quite a delicacy, but I can by no means concur in the opinion. I always found it unfit for eating, and when cut into narrow strips and roasted it was as hai-d and tough as so much rope. The same may be said of the tongue, which I often had smoked and salted. The meat is remarkably fibrous, and is one continuous tissue of sinews. The hippopotamus is hunted in different ways in different parts of Africa. That pursued on the river Zambesi and its tributaries is graphically described by Holub in his " Seven Years in South Africa." " After re-embarking we kept close to the shore with the object of avoiding the hip- popotamuses that in the daytime frequent the middle of the stream, only rising from time to time to breathe. Whenever the current made it necessary for us to change to the opposite side of the river I could see that the boatmen were all on the qui vive to get across as rapidly as possible, and I soon afterwards learned by experience what good reason they had to be cautious. We had occasion to steer outward so as to clear a ]iapyrus island, when all at once the men began to back water, and the one nearest me whispered the word ' kub.!.' He was pointing to a spot hardly two hundred yards ahead, and then a second, raised above the surface of tlie stream, both puffing out little fountains from the nostrils. They quickly disappeared, and the men paddled on genth- till they were tolerably close to the place where the brutes had been seen. Both Blackley and I cocked our guns, and had not long to wait before the heads of two young hippo- potamuses emerged from beneath the water, followed first by the head of a male and then by a female. We fired eight shots, of which there was no doubt that two struck the old male behind the ears. The men all maintained that it was mortally wounded, and probably such was the case ; l)ut although we waited about for nearly an hour we never saw more than the heads of the three others again. It was only with reluctance that the men were induced to be stationary so long; except they are in very small boats and properly armed with assegais they are always anxious to give the hippo- potamus as wide a berth as they can. Of all the larger Mammalia of South Africa I am disposed to think that to an unarmed man the hippopotamus is the most danger- ous. In its normal state it can never endure the sight of anything to which it is unaccustomed or which takes it by surprise. Let it come upon a horse, an ox, a porcu- pine, a log of wood, or even a fluttering garment suddenly crossing its path, and it will fly upon any of them with relentless fury ; but let such object be withdrawn betimes from view and the brute in an instant will forget all about it and go on its way entirely- undisturbed. Although in some cases it may happen that an unprotected man may elude the attacks of a lion, a buffalo, or a leopard, except they have been provoked, he cannot indulge the hope of escaping the violence of a hippopotamus that has once got him within reach of its power. When, out of several hi]iiio])btamuses in a river, one UNGULATES. 275 has been woundecl, tlie rest are far more wary in coming to the surface, and should the wound have been fatal the carcass does not rise for au hour, but drifts down the stream. The Marutse have a very simple but effectual way of landing their dead bodies. A grass rope with a stone attached is thrown across it, and by this means it is easily guided to the shore. The whole riverside population is most enthusiastic in its love of hippopotamus-hunting, and it is owing to the skill of the Marutse natives in this ])ursuit that they have been brought from their homes in the upper Zambesi and established in villages dowu here, where they may help to keep the court well suiii)lied not only with fresh and dried fish, but particularly with hippopotamus flesli. The boats that are used as ' mokoro tahi kubu ' (hippoj^otamus canoes) are of the smallest size, only just large enough for one ; they are difficult to manage, but are very swift ; the wea]ions emjiloyed ai'e long, barbed assegais, of which the shafts are so light that they are not heavier than the ordinary short javelins for militaiy use. " Although I have often tasted hippopotamus meat I cannot say I like it. The ■gelatinous skin when roasted is considered a delicacy ; in its raw state it makes excel- lent handles for knives and workmen's tools, as it shrinks as it dries, and takes firm hold upon the metal. If a hippopotamus is killed within fifty miles of Sesheke half of it is always sent to the kmg, and the breast reserved for the royal table. It is at night time that the hippopotamus generally goes to its pasturage, in the choice of which it is very particular, sometimes making its way eight or nine miles along the river bank, and returning at daybreak to its resort in the river or lagoon, where its presence is revealed by its splashes and snorts. Occasionally it is found asleep in the forests ten miles or more away from the water. In eastern and southern Matabele land, and in the Mashona country, where they are found in the affluents of the Limpopo and the Zam- besi, it is a much less difficult matter to capture them, and Matabele traders have told me that they have seen Mashonas attack them in the' water with broad-bladed daggers, and soon overpower them. "In time past hippopotamuses were common throughout South Africa, and the carvings of the bushmen would go to prove that they not only frequented the rivers, but found their way to the salt rain-pans ; they are still to be found in the rivers of Natal, and I was told in Cape Colony that they are in existence in Kaffraria ; but in central Soutli Africa they are not seen south of the Limpopo." The method of hunting employed by the Arabs in the Soudan is somewhat different from the above. Sir S. Baker says that the natives will swim into a river for the purpose of harpooning the hippoj)otami ; the barbs enter the hide some two or tlu'ee inches, and although the huge creature plunges off on feeling the wound, a float attached to the harpoon indicates liis whereabouts. The animal is afterwards secured by ropes in a manner which may be best described in Sir S. Baker's own words. " Two men swam across with one end of the long rope. LTpon gaining the opposite bank I observed that a second rope was made fast to the middle of the main line, thus upon our side we held the ends of two ropes, while on the opposite side they had only one; accordingly the point of junction of the two ropes in the centre formed an acute angle. The object of this was soon practically explained. Two men upon our side now each held a rope, and one of these walked about ten yards before the other. Upon both sides of the river the peo]ile now advanced, dragging the rope on the surface of the water until tliey reached the ambatch float that was swimming to and fro, according to the movements of the hippo below. By a dexterous jerk of the main line tlie float was now placed between the two ropes, and it was immediately secured 276 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. in the .leiite angle by bringing together the end of these ropes on our side. The men on tlie opposite bank now dropped their line, and our men now haule ]\Iarch ; the males are then very vicious, biting at each other and at their drivers. During this time a pendulous flaji, that hangs down from the fore part of the soft palate and rests on the u])per surface of the tongue, is greatly enlarged, and may be blown out into a sac-like form, on one or both sides, from the mouth. The protrusion is accompanied by a belching noise. Owen suggests that ordinarily the flap may be enijtloyed to moisten the back of the mouth and tongue during the long-enforced abstinence from water ^\hich the animal has often to undergo. As is the case with other gregarious ruminants the camel has its peculiar cutaneous glands; these are situated at the back of the head, and emit a very offensive odor during the rutting season. After a period of gestation of about a year one calf is dropped, and a year after birth the young camels are weaned. Not till they attain the age of five are they mature, or fitted to liear burdens, but they are frequently employed before they are so old. No bit is used in riding or driving the camel ; a sort of leathern noose serves to constrict the nose of the beast of burden, and the hygeens, as a rule, have one nostril per- forated by a second bridle. Some interesting facts with regard to the natural history of the dromedary are given by Sir S. Baker, in his " Albert Nyanza." " There is no animrl so stuj^d as tlie camel, — he eats anything green, and must ahvays be accompanied by watchers, to keep him from the plant known as 'camel poison.' The most fatal ])lant is a creeper, very succulent, and so beautifully green that its dense foliage is most attractive to the stu})id victim. The stomach of the camel is very suljject to inflamm.ation, which is rapidly fatal. I have frequently seen them, after several days of sharjj desert marching, arrive in good pasture, and die within a few hours of inflammation, caused by repletion. It is extraordinary how they can exist u])on the driest and apparently most innutritions food. When other animals are starving the camel manages to jiick up a subsistence, eating ends of barren, leafless twigs, dried sticks of certain shrubs, and the tough, dry, paper-like substance of the dome palm, about as succulent a breakfast as would be a green umbrella or a ' Times ' newspaper. The camel is intensely greedy in abundant pasture, and the poison bush becomes a fatal bait. The camel is not understood in Europe, he is not docile or patient, — quite the- reverse, — the males are often danger- ous, exceedingly perverse, and excessively stupid. Accounts are exaggerated of the length of time a camel can go without drinking ; it depends entirely on the season .and tlie quality of food. In Eux'ope sheep require little water when fed on turnips, so does the camel exist almost without drinking during the rainy season when ])astured upon succulent and dewy herb.age. During the hottest season they are led to water every alternate day, but when upon the march across deserts, where no water exists, they are expected to carry a load of from five hundred to six hundred pounds, and to march twenty-five miles a day for three days witliout drinking, but to be watered on the sixth day. Thus a camel should drink the evening before the start, and he will carry his load one hundred miles without the necessity of drinking; not, however, without 282 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. suffering from thirst. This pi-'fuliarity of constitution enables the camel to overcome obstacles of nature that would otherwise be insurmountable. He can travel over scorching sand and never seeks the shade. When released from his burden he kneels by his load in the burning sand, and luxuriates in the glare of a suu that drives all other beasts to shelter. The peculiar spongy formation of the foot renders the camel exceedingly sure, although it is usual to believe that it is only adapted for flat, sandy plains. I have travelled over mountains so precipitous that no domestic animal but the camel could have accomplished the task with a load. This capability is not shared generally by the race, but by a breed belonging to the Hadendowa Arabs, between the Red Sea and Saka. There is quite as great a variety in the breeds of camels as of horses. Those most esteemed in the Soudan are the Bishareen, not so large as others, but exceedingly strong and enduring. "The average value of a baggage-camel among the Soudan Arabs is $1-5.00, but a good ' hygeen,' or riding dromedary, is worth from §50.00 to $150.00. Such a camel is sujiposed to travel fifty miles a day, and to continue this pace for five days, carrying only his rider and a small water skin, or girba. His action should be so easy that his lonsj amblins; trot should produce that peculiar movement adopted by a nui-se when hushing a child to sleep upon her knee. This movement is delightful, and the quick elastic step of a first-class animal imparts an invigorating spirit to the rider, and were it not for the intensity of the sun he would willingly ride forever. The dift'ei-ence of action and of comfort to the rider between a common camel and a high class hj-geen is equal to that between a thoroughbred and a heavy dray horse." It is interesting to note that the further north we go in Africa into districts where the atmosphere is moister and herbage comparatively abundant, the heavier does the camel become. A similar phenomenon has been referred to in the contrast of southern and northern breeds of horses. Before the late war several camels were imported for military service on the deserts of the western territories. They were neglected for many years but continue to increase, and are now numerous in some parts of Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico. The Central Asiatic species, C. bactrianus, or Bactrian camel, is an animal of larger size than the dromedary, and is adapted to its colder habitat by a more abundant coat. The presence of two humps, one on the withers, the other in front of the rump, distinguishes this species at first sight. These humps decrease in size during the winter, but in early summer, when the herbage of the steppes, uninviting as it may apjiear, is comparatively abundant, the camels are freed from their bondage and fatten at liberty. The inhabitants of the steppes, being a pastoral people, do not ]>erinit the females to have the same freedom, but keep them in the neighborhood of their tents for the sake of their milk. Some comparatively unexplored districts of Central Asia are said to shelter wild camels of this species: it is still uncertain whether these have not merely- escaped from domestication. The representatives of the camels in the new world are confined to the west coast of South America, and are found there chiefly at high altitudes in the Cordilleras, or on lower ground towards the south of the contijient, where they find the lower tem- perature under which alone they appear to jirosper. Two of the forms, the guanaco and the vicuna, are found in the wild state ; the other two, the llama and the alpaca, have been domesticated for centuries, and are perhaps only the altered descendants of the foregoing. They are, however, generally described as separate species, forming the genus Aticheiria. Compared with their old world relatives the species of Auc/ienia UNGULATES. 283 are of diiiiiiiulive size ; they lack the hum]), and, excejjt for the long straight neck, large head, and long cars, are decidedly sliee])-like. Tiie toes are more distinctly cloven tlian in the camels, each being provided on its under surface with a callous pad, while interdigital glands pour their secretions into the cleft. Such callosities as mark the knees and breast of the camel are only found in the llama, and are perhaps attributable to its convei'sion into a beast of burden. In all the coat is much more abundant than in the camels, and yields wool of greater commercial importance. Fig. 139. — CattiehLS baciriamts, Bactrian camel. The largest species is the Guanaco (A. Jukoikco), which attains a length of between seven and eight feet, and a height of nearly four at the shoulder. The absence of the hump, and the carriage of the slender neck, give greater elegance to this animal than the camel can boast of. This species has the most southerly distribution of the four, being found most abundantly in the southern Andes, and on the colder plains of Patagonia. Like the others it is gi-egarious ; the herds are sometimes of large size, but generally number from six to thirty individuals, all of which, with the exception of the guiding male, are females. The body is entirely covered with a dirty brown fleece, the color of the coat darkening on the head but ]:ialing on the under-parts. The tail is carried erect, and is better provided with Iiair than in the camel. TJie ears are 284 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. half as long as the head, and tlic hearing is unquestionably acute, for the guanacos are described as being exceedingly shy and wary. They partake of the curiosity so common among wild animals ; and \yere it not for this trait tliey would be unapproachable, at least in mountainous districts. When attacked the guanacos have recourse to a singular method of defence, which is shared by the other species, — they forcibly expectorate a mixture of saliva and partlj^-chewed food in considerable quantity, a habit which has gained them some notoriety in zoological gardens. Darwin, who studied the guanacos in Patagonia, found that, unlike camels, they readily take to water, and swim from island to island. Like other ruminants they are fond of salt, and will drink salt water. The rutting season is in August and September; then the males fight together, their teeth leaving serious wounds in the hides of the vanquished. The females go eleven months with young, and suckle the calf for four months before it is weaned. The supposed domesticated variety of the above, the Llama (^1. llama), is employed as a beast of burden on the elevated plateaus of Bolivia and Peru. Formerly it was used in large numbers to transport silver from the mines towards the seaboard, and to bring back the necessaries of life, but it has been largely replaced of late years by mules. From one to two hundred pounds are loaded on the llama, and with this it covers from six to twelve miles a day. The marks of its servitude are evident in the callosities on the knees and breast, the larger footpads, and the diminished size. The head and ears are also shorter than in the guanaco, and the coat, instead of being uniformly brown, is extremely variable in its coloi-ing. , Only the males are employed for transport ; the females are reserved for breeding purposes, and are allowed to graze at their will during the daytime, being merely gathered into folds at night. Although the distance traversed by the llama appears so insignificant yet this method of trans- port is very cheap. The animals if well treated are willing and hardy, require no forage except what they find on their route, and furnish excellent meat, especially when young. The Vicuna (^4. vicunna) is decidedly smaller in stature than the foregoing. It yields an extremely fine curly wool, from which fabrics of silky fineness are made which are one of the articles of export of Bolivia. The coat is reddish brown above, but an apron of long white hair falls down between the fore-legs, and is continued along the flanks. The vicunas are foun«;• excellence, and the camels and chevro- tains are isolated groups with few living representatives, departing from the typical ruminants in the particulars recorded above. It will be unnecessary then to repeat here the characteristics of tlie Pecora, and we shall now proceed to discuss the four families into which they are conveniently divided. Sir Victor Brooke has recently contributed to the Zoological Society of London a valuable paper on the classification of the family Cebvid^, — which embraces the deer, — and a revision of the species, to which we are indebted for many of the facts recorded here, as well as for the arrangement of tlie species. The musk deer and the giraffe form two such aberrant sections of the sub-order under consideration that a summary of tlie points in which the present family differs from the Bovidte will serve best to introduce an account of the special anatomical features of the group. The Cervidaj are sometimes sj)oken of as the solid-horned ruminants, as distinguished from the hollow-horned oxen and antelopes. The horns or antlers, generally present in the male sex only, are annual outgrowths of the frontal bone which are at first covered by soft, hairy skin, the 'velvet'; this is, however, rubbed off when the antlers liave attained their full size. Three ])arts are distinguished in the antlers, the pedicel, which projects from the skull; the burr, or rough circular ]irotuberance ; and the beam, which constitutes the free part of the antler. Burr and beam are shed once a year whe.n the hair is shed. The main branches of the antler are the ' tynes,' and the secondary branches ' snags,' together these constitute the ' points,' and as the tynes and snags form a pretty accurate measure of age, a deer is described as of so many points in Imnting parlance. Tlie closest connection is to be observed between the antlers and the reproductive function, as the antlers are employed in combat between the males at the ruttiiig-time, and the successful males are generally those which have just attained their full size, the snags in these being sharper than they are in the older bucks. Besides the reindeer, in which the female is always antlered, occasional abnormal development of antlers has been observed in the female of various forms. Judge Caton states that he has frecpiently observed Virginia does with small, simple, velvet- clad antlers, and describes a skull from the National Museum in which the beams are six inches long. The same phenomenon has been observed in the Columbian deer and in the moose. At the castle of Aschaffenburg, in Germany, an antlered skull of a female moose of eight points has the following inscri])tion : — "Schau, O Welt, ich bin ein Weib Und trag' des Mamies Wappen Ich liab' auf meinem Kopf Was fiir ihn ist erschaffeii ! " In England and Germany many instances have been recorded of antlered roe-deer, many of which were fertile animals. Mr. Alston makes the suggestion that these are instances of atavism, and calls attention to the fact that the phenomenon is very VOL. V. — 19 290 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. uncommon in the old-world deer, embracing the most liighly specialized genera. He is inclined to believe that the horns were first developed in both sexes as means of defence, and only afterwards became modified under the laws of sexual selection. He justifies this view by pointing out that the females of the Camelopardidre, of the Bovidae (with the exception of twelve genera of antelopes), and one of the least-specialized Cervidae (liangifer) are always provided with horns. The normal absence of these in the females of the Cervidas is explainable by the strain on the constitution caused by their yearly renewal not being supportable sinuiltaneously with the strain due to parturition. 'I'he antlers of the male are shed at the time of the dropping of the fawns, a provision which perhaps secures the safety of the young from the viciousness of the parent, and which may also have been a liabit acquired through natural selection — those males being best fitted for the struggle for existence in which sharp, newly-formed antlers Ctrvulus miin/Jftr, inaiitjiio. replaced those injured in combat. The hollow-horned ruminants, on the other hand, possess similar ])roeesses of the frontal bone envcloiied in horny sheaths which (with the exception of those of tlie prong-horned antelope) are persistent ; only the females of a few genera are hornless. In the Cervidae ii])per canine teeth are jiresent in both sexes with few excepticms, but they are absent from all Bovidre with a single exception. The distal ends of the second and fifth metacarpals are present in some Cervidie, but are absent in all Bovidff. The two jjroximal joints of tlie second and fifth digits are j)resent in the Cervidm and absent in the Bovida>. The cotylcdonary jiatches of the placenta are few in number in the Cervidae, but n.umerous in the Bovidas. A gall-bladder is absent in the former and present in the latter. In his researches on the classification of the Cervidaj Sir V. Brooke finds that the new world forms exhibit certain important peculiarities, which distinguish them from those of the old world, and he accordingly proposes to divide the deer into two UNGULATES. 291 groups, 1, Plesionietacarpi (mostly old world forms), in which the near ends of the second and fifth metacarpals remain, and 2, Telemetacarpi (mostly new world forms), in which the distal ends of these bones remain. In the former group the hinder part of the nasal cavity is not divided by the vomer into two distinct chambers, while in the deer of the new world it generally is. There are also certain tufts of hair on the legs, which are singularly constant in their position. In the old world deer the tufts of hair on the hinder cannon-bones, when present, are above the centre, and there are never any tufts on the inside of the ankle-joint, whereas the converse obtains with the deer of the new world. The first genus which we shall consider in the group of Plesionietacarpi embraces the Muntjacs, small animals, of solitary habits, which are found in India and China. The commonest species, Cervulus mnntjac, occurs in British India, Burmah, the Malay penin- sula, and also in Sumatra, Java, and Borneo ; in which islands, however, it apjiears to at- tain a larger size than on the mainland. The other species, C lacrymans and reevesii, are from northern and southern China respectively. The stature of the muntjacs is small, — twenty-six inches at the shoulder, — the hair is smooth and short, the limbs are short, and the back arched and high behind. The antlers of the male are peculiar chiefly for the length of the pedestals which connect them with the frontal bones ; they have short brow-antlers, which project inwards, as do the antlers themselves. Sir V. Brooke describes their habits as follows : " They are fond of hilly ground covered with forest, and, in common with all deer, exhibit much partiality to particular spots. Their alarm cry is a sharp, shrill bark ; when attacked by dogs the males use their sharp, ex- serted canines with extraordinary severity, inflicting u])on their opponents deep, and at times even dangerous wounds. These teeth being very loose in their sockets, it has been imagined by some that the animal possesses the power of moving them, so as to give greater effect to the blow when striking -with them." The general color is a yellowish red, the chin, throat, and belly being, however, white, and the face and legs brown. Closely allied in certain respects to the muntjacs is the genus Elaphodus, embrac- ing two Chinese species, the antlers of which are, however, imbranched. The frontal cutaneous glands, so characteristic of the muntjacs, are absent. The genus Cermis has been subdivided into a number of sub-genera, which are, for the most part, confined to special zoogeographical regions. Musa, for example, is confined to the Indian region, and embraces twelve species, of which one of the best known is C. arisiotelis, the Sambur. Here the antlers are between two and three times the length of the head. A strong brow-tine forms an acute angle with the beam, which bifurcates at the end. The color is brown, and the neck maned. The Bornean Sambur, C. equinus, although darker, and with a bushier tail, is probably only a small race of this species. Several little-known species are described from the Philippine Islands, and a better known form, C. hi2->pelaphus (in which the iimer tine is much longer than the outer), occurs in Java, and, according to Wallace,' has been introduced by the Malays, who are fond of the flesh, into various remote islands in which they have settled. Rucervus is also from the Indian region. Its powerful brow-antler projects forwards, at right angles from the beam, which is twice bifur- cated. Axis, from the western portion of the Indian region, has antlers about three times the length of the head {C. axis). The brow-tine forms less than a right angle with the beam, which bifurcates at half its length, the anterior foi-k being longer than the 292 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. posterior. Both sexes, at all ages and seasons, are distinctly spotted. The stature is decidedly smaller than that of the sambur and .Java deer. Pseudaxis (C sika, from Japan, C. caspicus from the mountains southwest of tlie Caspian) has antlers about twice the length of the head, with a short upwardly directed brow-tine, an anterior tine half way up the beam, and a short posterior tine near the top. The metatarsal tuft is wliitisli, the coat sjjotted in summer, brown in winter ; black bands on each side of the pure white anal disk form a cross with the narrow black streak along the back of the tail. Fn;. 144. — Cer-vus axis, axis rteer. Cervus proi)er has seven species, with one new world form, the wapiti. The antlers in this group have a second brow-tine, and the terminal ])osterior tine is more strongly developed than the anterior. The neck is maned, the young spotted, and a lighter disk than the general color surrounds the tail. Two s|3ecies are of ]iarticular interest, which we shall describe more in detail, the red deer of Euroiie ( C. ehiji/nis) and the wapiti of North America (C. canadensis). The Stag, or Red deer, attains a length of seven feet, with a height at the shoulders of over four feet. The hind is considerably smaller. The brow-antler projects foi- wards and u]nvards, not downwards over the face as in the wapiti. The coat is formed of coarse hairs and fine wool, the former )irolonged on the throat and cliest. The Cervus elaphus, red deer. UNGULATES. 293 latter, more abundant in winter, is grajish limwii, wliich results in a grayer winter coat. The hair on the face is darker, and round the tail paler than the rest of the coat. Only the young are spotted. In the lanaaiase of the hunt various names are triven to red deer of different ages. In the second year, while the antlers are unbranched, the male is a 'brocket,' in the third year a 'spayad,' in the fourth a ' staggard,' and only in the fifth do the antlers attain the tines characteristic of the adult, when the name 'stag' is for the first time apjilitd to it. As the tines increase in numl)er to from ten to sixteen points, the stag is then called a 'great hart.' The red deer is still found over all P^urope and a great part of Asia, with the excep- tion of the highest latitudes. It is, of course, exterminated in jiopulous districts, and is now only found in deer forests, whei-e it is carefully preserved, or in wild tracts of country, such as occur in the mountainous districts of Austria, the Caucasus, and southern Siberia. The larger herds are formed of hinds and young stags, the smaller of stags of greater maturity, while the harts live a solitary life except at the time of the rut. Both herds and solitary animals seek lower level, where food is more abun- dant, during the winter time ; the evening and night constitute the feeding time. For fleetness and agility the red deer is unexcelled, even broad arms of water offer no obstacle to its progress, for it is an excellent swimmer. All the senses are extraordi- narily acute, as is genei-ally the case with the timid and wild members of this order. The temjier of the stag is, however, neither to be dejiended on in the wild or tame condition, for both hunters and keepers have been frequently fatalh' charged unex- pectedly, the brow-antlers being employed in such attacks. Nor is he kinder to his kin, for he maltreats the hinds, especially at tlie rutting time, and is then exceedingly dangerous to ajjproach. The food of the red deer alters witli the seasons of the year; in winter buds, bark, lichens, and moss, in spring young shoots and herbs of various kinds. During the rutting time the stags eat very little, merely fungi, — this time lasts during September and part of October. The hind carries her young for ten months, and tends it carefully, especially during the first helpless days. In three years the hind is full-grown, but the stag requires a longer time to be able to secure foi- himself in combat with older stags the privileges of maturity. The horns of the red deer, wliile very vascular, were at one time regarded as a potent medicine, but the Chinese alone now apj)ear to retain this idea. The liorns of the allied C. maral, of Siberia, are liought eagerly at the Siberian border in this con- dition. It is asserted that this species has been recently successfully domesticated by Cossacks, in the neighborhood of Kiakhta, in Siberia, but that the horns of the tame animals do not command so high a ]irice as those of the wild. Exceeding the red deer in stature, but resembling it in the general conformation of the antlers, the Wapiti, or American Elk (Wawaskeesh of the Crees, and La Biche of the Canadian French), C. canmleiisis, is one of the noblest mend)ers of this f.amily. It differs from the red deer in the following particulars : The hoofs are broad and semicircular, instead of being nari-ow and triangular ; the tail is much shorter ; the coat is redder in color, and in winter, over the witliers, is softer; the pale disk round the tail is much more extensive. The distribution of colors in the coat is described by Baird as follows: "In summer the general color is of a light chestnut-red, darkest on the neck and legs ; the throat and median ventral line are dusky, almost black; the chin is dusky, with a narrow patch 294 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. of liobt yellowish on either side of a broad median, yellowish patch under tlie head ; the rump is yellowish white, bordered by a dusky Itand which extends down the pos- terior face of the hind .legs. As in other Cer^idaj the winter coat is decidedly grayer." The wapiti was at one time very widely distributed on the American continent, for it was found from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast, and from New Mexico to Hudson's Bay. It is now uncommon in the States except about the western tributaries of the Mississippi, but still occui-s in large numbers in northern California and Oregon. There ^^ - ^fc -'J ^~\ — ^ — _ Fig. lio. — Ci-rviis canadensis, wapiti. it is found, says Newberry, in the wide stretches of "tnle" bordering the river.s and lakes, and attains a larger size than that east of the IJoeky Monntahis, up to 1,000 or even 1,200 pounds. They are also pretty numerous amongst the clumps of wood skirting the plains of the Saskatchewan and about the up]ier waters of the Missouri, where they once were found in large herds, but now live in small families of six or seven individuals. They feed on grasses, on young willow and poi)lar shoots, and the hips of the Jiosa blcmda, which forms much of the underwood in these districts. All observers agree in dcscrilnng the call of the wajiiti during the rutting time as different from that of the red deer. The "belling" of the latter is a distinct roar, like tliat of a panther. UNGULATES. 295 while the wajiiti, like tlu' C;isliinere stag, C. cashtneriaiiKg, emits a loud squeal, ter- minating in a more guttural tone. The rutting season lasts only for a short time in September, just before which the velvet is rubbed off the antlers. The call of the staiTs has been described as a prolonge(l whistle, apparently coming from a distance; this is succeeded by three or four barks, and finally by a low, smooth bellow. Soine- times tlie whistle is heard alone. The stags have tierce combats with eacii other, antlers being occasionally found locked ine.xtricaltly together. They recover their condition after the rut in November, when the best hunting season begins. The females di-op their young in May or June, retiring then to thick brush. The annual gradual growth of the horns resembles that of the red deer, a stag requiring six years to attain a ' full head.' The antlers of the wapiti reach a considerable size; a good pair of points weigh, with the skull, 40 pounds, measure from burr to ti]>, on the curve, 52 inches, with a spread from tip to tip of 41 inches, and are 12 inches in circumference above the burr. They are of a deep brown color except the points, and are covei'ed with little warty protuberances, arranged in lines, and separated by longitudinal grooves. The first brow-antler is more depressed toward the facial line than is the case in the red deer. The gait of the w'apiti is a long swinging-trot, which, if hotly jnirsued on horse- back, they exchange for an awkward gallo]) ; if the trot be once broken they are easily ridden down, although they have the advantage of a horse on very rough ground. They are stalked in certain districts, and are more readily approached than the Vir- ginia deer. The females of the small herds act as sentinels. The sub-genus Daraa embraces the Fallow Deer ( C. dnma), a form of much smaller stature than the foregoing, the natural range of wliich is from Spain and Sardinia, to Greece and as far as Palestine, but which has led a domesticated life in European deer parks for many generations. Both sexes are marked in summer with white spots distributed irregularly over the sides on a brilliant fawn ground, the spotted regions being bounded by indefinite white lines ; these marks ai-e exchanged for a more uniform coloring in wintei-. The tail and rum]) have Ijlack marks as in the Japanese deer. The paluiated antlers are about twice the length of the head, the tines on the upper half of the antler rising from its posterior surface. The remaining genera of Ccrvidie, forming the grou]i Telemetacarpi, have the distal ends of the second and fifth metacarpals remaining. Three of these genera, almost exclusively confined to the old world (Alces, Jli/dvojjoles, Capreolus), share the structure of the skull, and the arrangement of the hair-tufts at the ankle-joints, referred to above as characteristic of the foregoing old-world forms. As the genus Cerviis has extended (in the wapiti) from the old into the new world, so we find the Moose, or Elk as it is called in Eurojic, counnon to both. In the old world its range extends from Sweden through Lithuania, Northern Russia, to the forests of the Lower Amoor as far south as the mouth of the Lfssuri in latitude 48°. In the new world it extends on the west coast from the shores of the Arctic Ocean nearly to the Columbia River. Further east its northern limit is about 6.5°, and thence it extends southwards through British North America to the Northei'n States. It is rarely found east of the Saguenay, but is abundant upon the south side of the St. Lawrence, in the jirovinces of Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, and in Northern Maine. In the first-named jirovince its numbers have increased within recent years owing to a total prohibition of moose hunting, which expired in the fall of 18S3. Some naturalists have attem])ted to find specific differences betw^een 296 NATURAL HI STORY OF MAMMALS. the European and American forms, l)ut tliey are i;enerally united under the scientific name Alces malc/iis or americanus. The horns of the moose are very cliaracteristic in shape; they are dichotomous, both jnain brandies being jialmated, tlie posterior one, however, of much greater dimensions than the anterior. \n average full-grown pair weighs, with the skull, seventy pounds; the posterior branch measures tliirty- eight inches hi length, with a spread at the furthest distant ])oiiits of fort^'-six inches, 1 »;:■>- tJ^ ■ Fig. 14ot to assail his supposed rival. If the hunter fails in giving it a mortal wouud as it approaches he shelters himself from its fury behind a tree. Moose-calling is practised most successfully by the Indians during the still autumn evenings. "With a trumpet made of birch bark, eighteen inches long, the low voice of the cow is imitated so as to entice the male nearer, or else the Jpuder call of the male is sounded. The males ai-e in very poor condition for some considerable time after the rut. Besides feeding on willow tops, the strijied maple is a favorite food-tree which has hence been named moose-wood. Young trees are often ridden down to bring the tender shoots within reach. It is said that the Indian word of which moose is an altered form means wood-eater, but bark and various evergreens like Gaiiltheria also afford subsist- ■ence to it. In winter the moose herd together in small troops for mutual protection. Occasion- ally several such herds unite, and the deep snow may then be trodden dowu over several acres, forming the moose-yards of the hunters. Wlien the ground is uncovered by snow the moose has a great advantage over the hunter in being able to clear fallen timber and similar obstacles with the greatest ease, thanks to the length of his legs. His high shoulders give him an awkward shuffling gait, accompanied by a peculiar crackling noise of the ankle-joints at every step, which may be heard at some distance. At a more rapid pace the hind legs are straddled so as to avoid tripping uj) tlie fore heels, which is not always successful, for the moose was at one time supposed to be liable to epilepsy from this awkwardness in tripping itself. The old world moose (elk) is said to have the anterior division of the horns less developed than the American form, ami to be soniewhat paler in its coloring. In Europe it is commonest in Sweden and Russia, and is carefully presei-ved in the forest of Ibenhorst, in Prussia. The numbers in that preserve diminish, however, from year to year, probably as the result of in-and-in breeding, and the extermination of this noble animal from the more inhabited parts of Europe is likely to be only a question of time. Lloyd, in his " Scandinavian Adventures," gives some valuable particulars as to the occurrence and mode of hunting of the elk in Norway and Sweden. Once common over all the wooded jiart of the peninsula, it was in danger of being exterminated until protected by legislative enactments, which enforce a close season from November or December till the end of July. It had formerly a price put on its head, and was UNGULATES. 299 classed with the lynx, beai-, etc., as a noxious animal, from its destructiveness to young wood, and from its making free with the stacks of hay and moss, and even with the grain of the peasants. The elk is found within the limits of 58° and 64° north latitude in Scandinavia. It is probably hardy enough to exist north of 64°, but has been exterminated in northern Lapland. It does not wander much, but if undisturbed remains for a long time on the same hillside. Where several travel together they do so in Indian file, and cross the country as the crow flies, deterred by no obstacle. The food of the elk varies with the season. In summer the shoots of various trees and shrubs are eaten; during the rutting season the Ledum palustre has the effect of making him more savage, and in winter the beard-like lichens growing on the pine trees, as well as the leaves of various evergreen trees, afford him sustenance. The branches of the trees are bent down with the head to bring twigs within reach, and even a slender tree may be curved by the weight of the body so as to make the topmost boughs available. The cry during the rutting time is described as a loud report produced by the overhanging upper lip, succeeded by a snort like that of a horse when alarmed, but much louder, and by a note as from a trombone. The male, when it has paired, forms a cavity, or 'grop,' in the ground, which the pair do not desert during the rutting season. Several pairs may be found near one grop, the situation of which is rendered evident by the males scoring the small trees in the vicinity with their horns. Mail)' fights occur during the rutting season ; usually the antlers, but occasionally the hoofs are used. The latter are most efficacious in striking out at dogs or wolves. The conquered males are generally very savage. The period of gestation is about nine months, one to three fawns being dro])ped in May or June, which stay with their mother till the third year. The mother defends the fawns ferociously. Fawns have been caused to suckle domestic cows with little difficulty when taken away sufficiently early. An illegal mode of hunting the elk is with the ' elg-grop,' a pit something like that used for securing the caribou in Northern America, but with spikes arranged so as to wound and prevent the escape of the animal. The ' elg-led ' consists of a young and pliant aspen, fastened by its thick end horizontally, about four feet from the ground, in notches cut in two upright posts, while its free end is bent sideways, in the manner of a bow, and in this position rests on a rail placed at right angles, where it is secured by a wooden pin. One end of a piece of wire is fastened to this pin, and the other end, after the wire has been drawn across the path, to a post on the other side. An arrow rests on a groove on the rail, and is driven, when the bow is released, with great force into the animal breasting the wire, as the pin which holds the bow in the bent position is thus pulled out. Such elg-leds may, however, secure game for which they were not intended, and several accidents to travellers have caused the prohibition of them in certain districts. Elks are also driven, most successfully, in winter, in Scandinavia, and are likewise hunted with trained dogs, but most are run down on 'skidor' (replacing the American snow-shoes), especially when the surface of the snow is hard enough to support the skidor but not the elk. The genus HydrojMtes has been recently established for a new water deer from China. " It occurs in large numbers in the lai'ge ri^•erine islands of the Yangtsze, above Chin- kiang, living among the tall rushes that are there grown for thatching and other pur- poses. The rushes are cut do^\ ii in the sjiring, and the deer then swim away to the 300 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. main shore, and retire to the cover of the hills. In autumn, after the floods, when the rushes are again grown, they return with their young and stay the winter through. They are said to feed on the rush sprouts and coarse grasses, and they doubtless often finish off with a dessert from the sweet-potatoes, cabbages, etc., which the villagers cultivate on the is\ands during winter. They cannot, however, do much damage to the latter, or they would not be suffered to e.xlst in such numbers as they do ; for the islands have their villages, and a pretty numerous agricultural population. Fortunately for the deer the Chinese have an extraordinary dislike for their flesh. I could not ascertain why, but it must be from some strange superstition, as the Celestials are other- wise pretty nearly omnivorous. The deer are killed only for the Eurojjean markets, and sold at a low price. Their venison is coarse, and without much taste, but is con- sidered tolerable for want of better ; it is the only venison procurable in Shanghai." The deer appear to be very prolific, and not to suffer materially in numbers from the European sportsmen. The young are spotted, and number three to six at a birth. There are no antlers in either sex, but the canines are of immense size, curved down- wards, and slightly convei'gent in the male, with non-persistent pulp. To the absence of antlers this water deer owes its specific name, II. inermis. The coat is of coarse stiff hair, of chestnut color, deepening above and paling on the under jjarts. The length of an animal not quite full grown is about thirty inches. The last of the old world genera, with the same structure of the foot as the new world forms, include the Koe Deer of Euro]ie and Asia, Capreolus caprcea and piy- gargus. The latter, from the mountains forming the watershed between the Russian and Chinese Empires, is regarded by some naturalists as merely a large variety of the common roe. The European species has a very wide distribution through suitable places in both northern and southern countries, extending to northern Palestine. The antlers are less than twice the length of the head, generally with six tines, the brow- antler projects forwards and upwards from about the middle of the antler. The tail is very sliort, the stature small, about twenty-seven inches at the shoulder, and the young spotted. The same change of coat, both in color and texture, which has been described in relation to the red deer, is also observed in the roe. It is not so gregarious as the red deer, buck and doe lieing generally found in a henl, with two or three fawns. The does are tameable, but the bucks only partially so. Like the red deer the roe is very destructive to trees, as it browses on the tender shoots as well as on herbage. It has consequently lieen extirjKited instead of preserved in many forests. The remaining genera of deer, Cariacus, Pmlu.a, and liaiigifer, resemble the moose and roe deer as to the bones of the foot, but differ in the skeleton of the nasal chamber; they are, with the exception of the reindeer, confined to the new world. Almost .all the species belong to Cariacus, the small Chilian pudu merely forming one species, while the reindeer exhibits in its vast range differences, which by some naturalists are regarded as of specific, by others as of merely " varietal " value. The genus Cariacus, to which our American deer belong, has been divided into various sub-genera, of which Cariacus is reserved for the more northern foi-ms. The antlers, of which the pedestals are short, do not gre.atly exceed the head in length. A short upright brow-antler rises from the inner surface of the lower third of the antler some little distance above the burr. The antlers are curved boldly forward and inwai-d, one or more tines being developed from their convex or posterior surface. There are no upper canine teeth ; the molars sometimes have small accessory columns, and the central incisors are but slightly spatulate. A tuft of long hair jirojects fi-oiii UNGULATES. 301 the inner surface of the limb at the tarsal joint. The tail is long ; the stature medium ; and the young spotted. In most of the species the antlers are not dichotoniously brancheecies, to which also the white-tailed deer {C. leucurus) and the Mexican or Sonora deer (C mexicanus) belong. As else- where, in referring to the ruminants of this country, we are largely indebted to Pro- fessor Baird's magnificent nion- ograjjh of the North American Mammalia. The Virginia deer is abundant in various wooded and mountainous parts of the United States and Canada, but it does not occur west of the Missouri river, nor does it ex- tend far north into the British Possessions. It, however, ranges south to Texas, where it docs not attain the size of the more north- erly specimens. Drs. Cones and Yarrow have recently described a very small variety from Ari- zona, weighing only some sev- enty pounds. The general color of the sum- mer coat on the back and sides is a light chestnut red, Ijut the buttocks, the lower part of the side, the side of the head, and the throat and chest are more cinnamon-colored. The under parts are white, as is also the under surface and edges of the tail. The upper surface of the tail, on the contrary, is reddish, darker near the tip. The ears are scarcely more than half the length of the tail, white on the inside, sooty brown on the convex surface. Under the chin is a transverse band of black, and l)ehind this is one of cinnamon color. The winter coat is grayer, and at the time when this is assumed the deer is said to be 'in the blue.' The antlers may attain in an old buck as many as six or seven jtoints, but the age after six years, when five points are at- tained, is reckoned more by the size and thickness of the antleis than by the number of points. The buck sheds his antlers from January to March, earlier in the southern than in the nortliern states. At this time he retires into thick bush, but emerges to lead a less solitary and more peaceful life with his comrades. The rutting season is in Octolier and November, earlier in the southern states, and the doe drops her two or three young in May or June. Young does calve later than older animals, and have generally only one fawn. As with other members of the family the food of the Virginia deer varies with the season. In the autumn and winter their food consists largely of buds, tender shoots, ferns, bark, etc. ; but in sumniei' rich herbage and pond lilies are sought after. The Fig. 147. — Ccrvu^ vtryiuianus, ^*irgillia deer. 302 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. latter appear to be specially enjoyed while the animal is seeking in some ])0ik1 or quiet river a temporary respite from the annoying flies. Water is a necessity to the deer. They leave the hill on. their way to the water generally before sunset, so that the hunter has then one of his opportunities of meeting with the game. Various methods of hunting are resorted to, sportsmanlike and unsportsmanlike. Stalking is of course the most difficult, and affords the l)est sport ; but in many places the deer are driven by dogs along particular tracks where the guns are stationed at intervals; or they are hounded into water, or shot from scaffoldings erected near deer paths, fences being employed to confine the deer to the paths. In some lake-districts hunting with a light at the boat's head is practised, the shots so obtained, however, being somewhat uncertain. Curiosity appears to be as marked in the Virginia deer as in many others of the family. The White-tailed Deer ( C. leucurus) is of similar stature to the Virginia deer, but replaces that species in the western parts of Dakota and Nebraska, and in Northern California, Oregon, and Washington, where it is most abundant on the eastern slope of the Cascade Mountains. The tail is considerably longer than in the allied species, and is merely reddish above and not of dark color near the tip ; the chin also is entirely white, the fur finer, its hues paler throughout, but with dusky waves, the legs slenderer and the hoofs narrower and longer. Lord Walsingham found this species abundant about the source of the Deschuttes river, where the specimens are finer than those met with further north. " They appear to frequent the thick wiHow-clumjis and other brushwood Irordering streams and swamps. They are extremely difficult to distinguish among the foliage, and remark- ably quick when alarmed. As they bound off over logs and fallen trees, or dash through the thicket, they have a habit of swinging their broad white tails with a conspicuous flourish, which becomes annoying to a sportsman, to whom tliey never afford anything but a snap shot, which is very apt to fail." In these regions C. leucurus is met with in the valleys, while the mule deer frequents the hills, and the prong-buck the open plains. All appear to migrate, according to the season, to summer or winter quarters, the distance between these varying with the severity of the season. The Mexican or Sonora Deer ( C. mexicatncs) differs from the foregoing species in its small size, in which respect it accords with the general law recognized by JMr. Allen, that in the case of animals the centre of whose area of distribution is in North America size steadily decreases as we go southwards. Tliis is even the case with indi\iduals of the species under consideration, for the Texan specimens are much larger than those from Central America. The coat of this species does not alter with the seasons, and is remarkable for its ashy or grayish brown hues resembling the winter coat of the Virginia deer. The tail is very short, and the hoofs short and broad — peculiarities which distinguish it from the last species, with which however it agrees in the absence of the marked dark band across the chin. The sub-genus Cariacus also extends into Central and South America, with various otiier species, the habits and peculiarities of which are not very well known. The Mule Deer and the Columbian Deer (C. macrotis and C. columhianus) differ from the above-mentioned species in having dichotomous antlers. The former in its geographical distribution resembles C. leucurus (being especially common in the Blue IMountains of Washington Territory, Oregon, and Idaho), but differs from it not only in its greater size and the foi-ra of the antlers, but also by its coloring and the length of its ears, to which it owes both its familiar and its specific name. UNGULATES. 303 The coat is ashy brown, changing to gray in wintt-r, with yullowisli legs, but a dorsal black stripe persists which is very characteristic and is said by some observers to be erectile. The eais stand some eight inches from the head, and are well covered with hair, which along the margins is of a sooty hue. The tail is slender ami cylin- drical, not much longer than the ears, naked beneath but terminated by a black tuft. The buttocks are white, and the gland of the hind leg very large. According to Prince Maximilian, tlie gait of the mule deer is not so rapid as that of the Virginia deer ; it carries its tail erect and still, in this respect unlike C. leucurus. Fig. 148. — Cariiicus macrotis, mule deer. They rut in October, cast their horns in Mareli. Usually only one fawn is dropped, of pale yellowish hue with white spots. The young are dropped in May and June. After the rainy season they return to the mountain slo|)es which they ascend to different altitudes, according to the severity f>f the season. The mule deer are thus cliaracteristically mountain and plateau loving forms; they have frequently to he stalked over very rough ground, but the hunter is repaid by the venison, which is far superior to that of the wliite-tailed deer. A variety has recently been described by Judge Caton from southern California and Arizona, smaller, redder, and with a distinct, dorsal, black line on the tail. It a])])ears to be especially common in the coast range of southern California and is not fomul east of the Sierras. 304 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. The Black-tailed Deer {C. columhianus) is about one tiiird smaller than the mule deer, and similar in stature to the Virginia deer. The tail is cylindrical, hairy and white beneath, but black above. There is no surrounding white patch on the buttocks, but there is a dusky horseshde mark on the forehead in front of the eyes, all of which peculiarities serve to distinguish it from the mule deer. This deer is occasionally found on the same ground with the mule deer, but is abundant throughout California, and further northward ajjpears to be restricted to the western slopes of the Cascade Mountains. According to Hallock its favorite haunts are the dense forests of redwood which clothe the mountains of Oregon and California. Further south it frequents the impenetrable thickets of chapparal and manzanita, and takes to these when wounded. Its venison is poor eating. The following results as to attempted domestication of American anteloi>e and deer are from a communication liy Judge Caton, and may be conveniently recorded here. He is satisfied that Columl)ia deer cannot be successfully domesticated in his grounds. They either find something which does not agree with them, or something is wanting which they require — most probably the former. All experiments with ruminants whose natural habitation is confined to the United States west of the Missouri River have proved failures. The mule deer, prong-horn, and mountain sheep all die shortly after their confinement from diarrhoea, which although checked returns obstinately. The elks do well, and are very prolific ; of all the Cervidse they seem the best adapted to domestication. The Virginia deer are vigorous and healthy but not prolific. They have been successfully hybridized with small deer of a tropical species — the Ceylon deer and the Acapulco deer. These prove to be very hardy, a circumstance which agrees well with the success which the introduction of the Japanese deer ( C. siha) has met with in deer parks (especially Viscount Powerscourt's) in Great Britain. The sub-genus Ulastocerus includes C. 2yaludosus and C. campestrls from Brazil and Paraguay. The former is a marsh-loving form, the latter delights in open coun- tries, and runs with frequent bounds. In stature it apjiroaches the roebuck, has a short tail and a reddish brown coat. The dichotomous antlers slightly exceed the head in length. The posterior branch is stronger than the anterior, the former being always bifurcated in adults, the latter generally so. The South American forms, C. chilensis and C. cmtisiensis, are from Chili and the Peruvian Andes respectively. They constitute the sulvgenus Furcifer, the name being derived from the forked antlers, which have a simple beam, and a strong, upwardly-jjrojecting brow-antler. Some further South American species, of small stature, heavy form, and arched back, with simj)le S])ike-like antlers not exceeding half the length of the head, .are united under the sub-genus Coassus (= Subulo). C. rufus is a red-coated form stand- ing about twenty-seven inches at the shoulder ; C. simpUcicornis (the Catigneiro, literally "Stinker") of smaller stature, and brown; C. riifinus and netnorivagxs, the former red, the latter gray, both ouh' nineteen inches at the shoulder. The Chilian Andes harbor the only representative of the genus Pudua {P. humilis), the Pudu, a pigniy form with sim]>le spine-like antlers only two and a half inches in length. Xothing is known of the habits of this deer, which is the smallest in stature of the Cei-vidaa. The last genus of the Cervida; is Pangifer, including the reindeer of the old world and the caribou of the new. It is to some extent unoertain what influence climate has had in the determination of the differences between these forms. Two well- UNGULATES. 305 marked varieties occur in America, tlie woodland caribou and the barren-ground caribou, and both tliese and tlic old world reindeer are frequently regarded as distinct species. All agree in the following particulars. Antlers are developed in both sexes ; a strong brow antler is developed sometimes on both, but more frequently on only one antler, that on the other being a mere rudiment. The brow antler, when fully developed, is directed downwards parallel with tlie face, and palniated anteriorly. A short dis- tance above the brow antler another similar tine is developed. Above this the antler forms a bold curve concave forwards; its extremity is palmated, and a short tine is develojied from its posterior surface at half its length. There is no naked spot on Fig, 149. — CtTi'iis cavipe:roportioned as that of the smallest gazelle, and his lengthy legs and short back give him every advantage for s)ieed and endurance. There is a rule to be observed in hunting the giraffe on horseback — the instant he starts he must be pressed ; it is the speed that tells upon him, and the spurs must be at work at the very commencement of the hunt, and the horse pressed along at his best pace; it must be a race at top s]ieed from the start, but should the giraffe be allowed the slightest advantage for the first five minutes the race will be against the horse." The flesh of the giraffe is said to form very fine eating, rather like veal in Schwein- furth's opinion, although, as Harris observes, it is strong-tasted at certain seasons when their favorite mimosas are in blossom. Tlie skins are used for sandals and for reins. Within recent years giraffes have not been uufroquent in zoological collections, and have even given birth to young which have been successfully suckled by cows. The pairing season is in March ; the single calf is born fourteen months later. The last family, the Boviuja, is the most rich in genera and species of the Ungulata. They are generally spoken of as the hollow-horned ruminants (Cavicornia), and although the extreme forms, such as the oxen and sheeji, appear to be separated liy such a wide gap, yet intermediate forms ai-e known, which makes the di\'ision into smaller groups a matter of great difficulty. In all exeeiJt tlie prong-horned antelope the horns are persistent and usually jiresent in both sexes. They surround, in a sheath- like manner, bony processes of the frontal bones, into which the frontal sinuses may be prolonged as in oxen and sheep, and are forjned of horny fibres closely agglutinated together. Incisors and canine teeth are only present in the lower jaw. There are usually dew-claws. We projjose here to adopt the arrangement of the sub-families which Wallace gives hi his " Geographical Distribution of Animals," and of which Sir V. Brooke, to whom we so frequently have to refer as an authority on the ruminants, is the author. The first sub-family, Bo^•inre, embraces our domestic cattle, the bison of the old and new world, the wild and domestic races of Indian cattle, the yak, and the old world buffaloes. All are of large size, the horns being bent outwardly, and round at least at the jioints. There are no sub-orbital nor interdigital glands. The point of the snout (muffle) is naked, and the up]ier lip not furrowed. The molar teeth have accessory columns of enamel lietween the crescentic folds. The legs are only mode- rately long, and there are four teats. 314 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. In the first genus, Sos., to whicli our domestic cattle belong, the forehead is long ami flat, and the horns not thickened at their origin. Our domestic cattle, generally spoken of as belonging to one species, Jios taurus, are really local races due to arti- ficial selection, and probably descendants of various wild species now extinct. Most of these are only known by fossil remains, but one of them at least existed down to comjjaratively recent times. Before discussing the races existing at the present day it may be well to refer to these extinct forms. Although Pallas, Bojanus, and other naturalists expressed the opinion that only one sort of wild cattle has existed during historical times in Europe (the bison, Ulson europams [Polish Zubr], which is still preserved in the forest of Bialowieza and is found wild in the Caucasus), it is beyond doubt that a second species {Sos primi- genius) [the Urus, Ur of the Niebelungenlied, Polish Tur], occurred, and w^as only exteiTninated in Poland little more than two and a half centuries ago. Professor Wrzesniowski has recently undertaken a study of the records which bear on the co-existence of these two forms, from which these particulars are extracted. Riiti- meyer has shown that in prehistoric times four forms of ox co-existed in Europe, viz.. Bos primigeniits, B. trochoceros, B.fi'oiitostis, and B. longifroiis. Of these the first and last were probably alone wild forms, the second and third being domesticated forms, progenitors of certain existing races. Of these wild oxen it is to the long-horned species. Bos 2}i'iinigenius.i that the records point as having lived within historical times in Poland, and this conclusion is rendered the more likely by the discovery of remains of the same species in a bed of turf in Scandinavia which would hardly require more than a thousand years for its formation. Sigmund von Ilerberstein, in an account of a journey to Poland (1571), gives figures of the tur and zubr side by side, which indi- cate unqnestional)ly their zoological characters. In prehistoric times the tur had a wide range, its bones having been found from England to Italy and to Siberia. Later it appears to have been restricted to certain British forests and to central and east Europe. By the thirteenth century it w^as necessary to protect it aiul the bison, in the latter localities, from extermination by restricting their luuit to the Dukes of Masowia. In the sixteenth century the tur was only found in tlie Jaktorowkn, and was there preserved much in the same way as the bison is to-day in ]]ialowieza. The last Polish tur appears to have died in lOliT. It has been sugsi'ested that the tur was onlv a liybrid lietween a male bison and a domestic cow, and certain experiments were undertaken in the forest of ]>ialowieza with the view of determining this point. The results, however, pointed to the predominancy of the bison's characteristics in the hybrid offspring. Young calves of B. priscus were without difliculty caused to suck domestic cows ap]iroaching the bison in color, although older ones refused to do so. Each bison calf required two cows as wet-nurses, as the milk of one w^as not sufficient. With some modifications the primitive wild cattle of the British Islands ai-e pre- served to the i)resent day in certain forests ; but although still wild they are very easily domesticated when taken sufliciently young. Those in the park of Chilliiigham ap- proach most nearly to the primitive tyjie, but have lost almost entirely the charac- teristic mane ; a ridge of coarse hairs on the neck is its sole representative. Their habits are those of wild animals; the bulls fight for supremacy, and the females conceal their calves in thickets, merely returning to suckle them several times a day. The color is pure white, but the ears are red, the muzzle brown, and the tips of the horns black. Similar cattle existed in Wales, and still form part of tlie domesticated stock licis tauriis, var. hollandicus, Dutch cow. r iJos taurus, var. dunelmensis, Durham cow. '«"- -,. "V. UNGULATES. 315 in tlie County of Pembroke. Also in various parts of Scotland they persisted till the middle of the sixteenth century, but are now only preserved in the Duke of Hamilton's ])ark at Cadzow. The breeds of the Highlands of Scotland are of small size, covered thickly with hair, hardy, and well adapted to the mountainous tracts on which they are bred ; they resemble cattle occurring in similar situations in Shetland and Wales. Of the forty or fifty independent breeds of cattle described we figure three : the Swiss cow (Hos taurus, \ar. /nbtirgensis), the Dutch cow {£. taurus, var. hollandicus), and the Durham cow {B. taurus, var. dunehnensis). The first of these is i)robably the lineal descendant of the extinct Jios longifro)is, the second is regarded as descended from Bos primigenitis, while the third is a product of the most careful artificial selec- tion, the object of which is the establishment of peculiarities favoring the fattening of -: ^-=.^j3- Fia. 152. — lios taurus, var. friburgensis, Swiss bull. the ox. So adapted is this .short-horned breed for this purpose that it l)ids fair to supersede in time all other breeds, or at any rate to greatly modify them. Cattle which have been subjected to domestication readily become wild under suit- able circumstances, and consequently we find in many countries half-wild eat tie frequently in large herds. The cattle of South America, introduced in small nuiuljers by the Sjian- iards ujiwards of three centuries ago, now extend in immense herds over the fertile plains of Paraguay, Buenos Ayres, etc. In tlie Maremma of Italy and in various parts of Spain and Portugal the cattle lead a similar free life, taken care of by herdsmen who drive them as required into the towns for slaughter, or assist in the capture of the wildest bulls for the national sport of the Spaniards. The Eurojiean Bison (Bison europeus), to which we liave raadi^ reference above, constitutes with the American bison or buffalo the sub-genus Bison. Tliis sub- genus is distinguislied from />(>.s by the foreliead being broader than it is long, and 316 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. by the position of the small, round, upwardly-curved horns which spring in front of the fronto-parietal ridge on the skull. The body is higher at the shoulder than at the rump, and the forehead, head, and neck are provided with a long woolly mane, while the chin has a well-developed beard. Instead of thirteen pairs of ribs, as in the ox, the European bison has fourteen and the American fifteen pairs. As already observed the European l:)ison is now only 2)reserved in the small Russian forest of Bialowieza, and occurs wild in tlie Caucasian district of Kuban. It had ■within historic times a much wider distribution, having been, two or three centuries ago, cj[uite common in Prussiim Lithuania and Hungary, while earlier still it ranged throughout the forest tracts of Germany and Switzerland. In the preserve referred to, the lierds number some eight hundred individuals ; their increase is slower in the forests than in captivity, and this is perhaps one of the reasons of the gradual extirpation of the species. Formerly they attained a greater size than at present, a length of thirteen feet with a height of seven feet at the shoulder having been recorded, whereas at the present day they rarely measure more than eleven feet in length. Tlie general color of the hair is liglit brown, which darkens however on the sides of the bead, beard, and legs, and becomes black on the tail. The cow resembles the bull in color, but is much smaller, and its horns are less developed. When abundant the bisons must have caused much damage in the forests they inhabited, for their food consists of buds, shoots, and bark. In winter prol)ably lichens and dried grass afford additional sustenance, and in summer herbage of various kinds. The bulls lead a comparatively solitary life except at the rutting-time in August and September. The calves are dropped in thickets in May or June, and jealously guarded by the mothers for some time. Old bulls are said to live to the age of forty to fifty years ; cows, however, die considerably younger. Our American Buffalo or Bison (JUson americanus) differs from its European congener in se\'eral particulars ; not only are the head and forequai'ters heavier, but the forehead is broader, the nose more vaulted, the ear longer, the hump on tlie withers much higher, the hindcpiarters and the limbs more slender, and the tail much thicker and shorter. The black horns are thicker, blunter, less curved, and do not con- verge at their tips — their anterior outlines being somewhat convex, owing to a slight backward projection. They are more slender and elegant in their form in the cow than in the bull. The hair of the coat is distributed in much the same way, and is of a similar umber brown color, except in rare albino varieties, possessing more lustre when it is renewed, but becoming dimmer and gr.ayer as the shedding time approaches. The cow has less hair on the forequarters than the bull, and only attains about four-fifths of his size. Comp.ared -with the bison the buffalo bull is considerably shorter, but much higher at the withers, for while a large bull only attains a length of eight and a half to nine and a half feet, the height at the shoulder is some six and a half feet, and at the rump only five and a half. The tail is about twenty inches long, inclusive of the hair twenty-sLx. The carcass weighs from twelve hundred to two thousand pounds. The abundant winter coat, so necessary to protect its wearer from the cutting winds which sweep over the prairies, is shed with the approach of mild weather. It is first detached from between the fore-legs, and remains longest on the lium]i, coming off in jjatches, not without considerable rubbing on the part of the owner, who by March is in a very ragged condition. The buffalo formerly ranged over the whole of the eastern United States, to the Atlantic Ocean, and southward into Florida. It is now mainly confined to northern UNGULATES. 317 Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas, Indian Territory, Montana, and Dakota, although it extends into British territory as far as the sixty-third or sixty-fourth parallel. The advance of civilization toward the west has had the result of driving the buffalo further and further in this direction, until now it has jjenetrated into the basin between the Rooky Mountains and the Cascades, having been killed on various tributaries of the Columbia Kiver. It now occurs, likewise, further north than it formerly did, a fact which Fig. \oZ. — Bison avuriranus, bison. is solely attributable to the persistent ])ersecution to which it has been subjected by skin-hunters. The buffalo is more sociable in his habits than any of his immediate relatives ; yet the immense hordes which formerly ranged over the continent were really formed of many small herds, only joined during the southerly migration in July, while these sep- arated tliemselves in the spring, on their return tow.-irds the north, making the migration northwards much less conspicuous. Solitary animals are generaily found to be old bulls, unable to keep uj) with the pace of the Iierd. The migratory liabit aj)))ears to 318 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. be less marked now than formerly ; a phenomenon wliiili jirobably is tlue to the animals remaining in tliose places where they are least persecuted. The gait of the buffalo is at all times more active than that of other oxen. Xot only is the ordinary walk brisk, but the trot and gallop enable him to cover the ground very rapidly. For a mile or so he is a good match for a horse. The shajie of the withers, and the peculiar character of the gallop, cause the surface of a mo\ing buffalo herd to have a peculiar wavy appearance. Obstacles rarely cause the buffalo to swerve on their migrations from the well-trodden buffalo paths ; even rivers of a mile in width are safely crossed. This onward pressing of the immense hordes in one direction is very often the cause of the death of large numbers, for if a landing be not effected on the other side of a river which has to be crossed, or if the water happens to be covered with thin ice, the vanguard do not appear to be able to apprise those following of the danger, and are consequently pressed on to destruction. In their fondness for water the buffaloes resemble many other members of the fam- ily. If not able to gratify this by plunging into a stream they scrape for themselves holes in which water collects, which are successively deepened by different occujiants, and are known as buffalo wallows. The peculiar appearance presented by a buffalo which has just emerged from such a mud-bath may be readily imagined. The mud dries, of course, and cracks off in time, or is removed by the next rain-storm. The rutting season lasts for a month, in September. Before pairing takes place, the bulls fight with each other for the good graces of particular cows, but according to Audubon these combats rarely, if ever, result in the death of the combatants ; for the horns are not sufficiently sharp to penetrate the thick cushions of fur which cover the head and forequarters. If they do not terminate fatally, yet a good deal of passion is shown l)y both combatants, for in the intervals of their rushing at each other the gi'ound is jiawed, the tail held erect or lashed from side to side, and a low bellow is emitted. After pairing the bull and cow remain together till early spring, when the cow retires to some wooded district to calve, which it does in March or April. There- after the cows join each other, so that the herds met with at this time of the year are either solely formed of cows and calves or else of bulls. The calves grow quickly, and are soon able to take care of themselves, althotigh furiously defended by the mother in any danger. After the rutting season the bulls are out of condition for the whole of the winter, but the cows generally put on a good deal of fat, and afford tender, juicy meat. The buffalo is almost exclusively hunted on horseback, trained horses being forced up alongside selected animals in the herd, so as to allow of a slioulder shot from a short carbine or revolver. The chief danger to be anticipated is an accident to the horse j but it must not be forgotten that, like other memljers of this family, even when mor- tally wounded, the buffalo will make his most desperate efforts to avenge himself. Occasionally herds may be ajiproached by stalking, a well-beaten buffalo-path being the best locality for the hunter to select for this form of s]^ort. When a buffalo herd is alarmed the cows generally lead off, the bulls occupying the rear. If one of the number be wounded when the herd is not in full career, his comrades generally exhibit sufficient curiosity or sympathy to lea^•e time for another shot. The ra]iid extermination of the buffalo is largely due to the wholesale slaughter which has been carried on for the .sake of their skins. Their nnndiers were not mate- rially reduced by the Indians before the skins became a marketable commodity, even UNGULATES. 319 in spite of the fact that iiiuuense numbers were killed for food ; for their rate of increase was sufficiently high to compensate for the numbers succumbing to the hunter, the wolf, or the various accidents of their existence. That the slaughter has been, and still is, ruthless and improvident, is sufficiently indicated by the remark of Colonel Dodge, that one skin that comes to market represents from four to six animals slain. Not only are the skins useful as "robes," but leather of a superior quality is made of the hides. The Indians in fact not oidy depended upon the buffalo for food and raiment but bones, horns, hoofs, and sinews were all turned to account. The flesh of Fig. 1o4. — liiboa g/turus, gaur. both bulls and cows, at certain jieriods of the year, is tender and juicy, the hump and tongue especially being celebrated as the sportsman's tidl)its. In frontier farms various attempts have been made to make use of the enormous strength of the buffalo for draught purposes, and from the success of these there is hardly room for doubt th.at such trials are deserving of more cxtensi\e imitation. If taken sufficiently young the buffalo becomes readily domesticated, and loses a great deal of its natural ferocity. The American buffalo is now no stranger to the menageries and zoological gardens of the world, for it readily accustoms itself to cn]itivity, ]irospcring on the food ordi- 320 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. narily provided for domestic cattle, and propagating much more freely than is usual with animals in confinement. It is generally observed to remain comijaratively quiet through the day, but is -restless at night. Although the herds of buffalo have been more than decimated within recent years, yet the entire extermination which threatens its European congener will hardly over- take it for many a generation. The protection which is afforded to the larger Ameri- can game by the Yellowstone national park is not to be overlooked, and will be of Fig. Ibb. — Jlibos frontalis, gayal. over-increasing im]iortance. Rigid game-laws are nevertheless a prime necessity, and are esjieeially required to check tlie wanton slaughter of the skin-hunters, who utilize the hides alone, while the carcasses are left to rot on the prairies. The East Indian wild cattle are generally referred to a separate genus, Jiibo.% the species of which may, however, be only Ideal races. We figure three of these forms, the Gayal {B. frontalis), the Gaur (B. rjaurus), aiid the Zebu (7?. huHnis). The gayal owes its specific name to the immense development of the forehead, and is further characterized by the thick conical horns, the extreme height at the shouldei-, length of tail, and the deep black coloring. UNGULATES. 321 The gaur, on the otiier haiul, li;is much slenderer lioriis, thick folds of skin on the neck, less height at the shoulder, and a short tail, while its coloring is deep brown and yellow. The gayal appears to be a mountainous form, chiefly recorded from Bengal ; the gaur, on the other hand, extends through the jungles of the whole peninsula. These forms are replaced in Java, Borneo, and Sumatra by the Banteng {B. banteng)^ the horns of which are thickened at the base, curved direcUy outwards, upwards, and then inwards. Its coloring, grayish-brown, is variegated by paler hues on the rump and legs, and the tail is of a length intermediate between that of the gayal and gaur. S _ [ l^-^il 4m- Fig. 15G. — Bibos hidU-us, zebu. The zebu differs from these forms in the possession of a well marked hum]) on the shoulder, long pendulous ears, excessively short liorns, and in the coloring, wliich is more variegated (sometimes piebald), and ]iassing from reddish yellow to white. The sacred bulls of the Hindus belong to this species, are ]iampered and fed l)y the natives, and must not )ie touched by them. Although found occasionally in a wild st.ate it is possible that the zebu is merely the result of domestication of one or other of the alwve- mentioned wild forms. Like the zebu, the Sanga of Africa (7?. africnnus) is provided with a hump, but differs from the allied species in the long horns, which are three feet long, close at their origin, but then curve outwards, upwards, and finally inwards. Sir S. Baker, in his " Ismailia," thus describes the uses to which these cattle are put in Abyssinia : — VOL. V. — 21 322 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. " There are countless herds throughout tlie country, but the natives liave a great objection to killing them, and merely keep the cows for their milk and the bullocks to bleed. The cows are also bled jjeriodically, and the blood is boiled and eaten, much in the same manner that black pudding is used throughout Europe. A herd of cattle Avill thus provide animal food without the necessity of slaughtering. The great trav- eller, Bruce, was discredited for having described a fact of which he was an eye-witness. This was the vivisection of a cow driven liy natives, who cut a steak out of her hind- quarters. I had a bull with a very large hump. This animal was very liandsome, and w'as kept for stock. I observed that the skin of the hump showed a long jagged scar from end to end, and my people assured me that this bull had frequently been operated upon. It had been the proi)ei-ty of one of the slave hunter's parties, and they had been in the habit of removing the hump (as a surgeon would a tumor). This is the most delicate portion of the meat, and I was assured that the humji would alwa3s be replaced by a similar growth after each operation." One of the most curious members of this family is the Yak {Poephagus grunniens), from the high plains of western Thibet, which occurs both in the wild and domes- ticated condition. It is valued greatly for its hide and hair, the white tails especially being sought after by the Chinese, Avho dye them red and use them as tassels. The flesh and milk are also excellent ; so, as the yak is unwearying as a beast of burden, it is invaluable to the inhabitants of those districts where it occurs. The yak is most at home in the coldest parts of these regions, and the great development of its hairy covering is obviously an adaptation to its habitat. The hair is curly on the head, but the neck and the outer sides of the legs and the flanks have long, soft flowing hair, which hangs down to the ground, as does the tail. The height at the shoulder is exaggerated Vjy a thick mane, and, indeed, the animal ap]>oars larger than it really is, owing to the character of its coat. The cows are much smaller than the bulls, which equal oxen of large size in tlieir dimensions. In the wild condition herds of great size are found, consisting mauily of cows, calves, and young bulls ; these divide into smaller herds for the sake of obtaining the scanty nourishment which their mountain- ous home affords, l)Ut at a sign of danger they speedily collect, the calves being gath- ered to the centre of the herd. The pursuit of the yak is not without danger, for it charges with great ferocity when wounded, and it is very diflicult to place a second shot. As a domesticated animal it gives little trouble, for it forages for itself, requires no stall, obeys the call of the Thibet maidens at milking-tirae, and yields an abundant sup])ly of excellent milk. The yak has been found to be fruitful with cattle of other species. The next genus of this grouji {Hubalus) embraces the Buffalo of India and Africa ; the former ha\ing been also introduced as a domesticated animal in southern Eurojie and Egypt, where it is much valued on account of the little care which is required in foraging for it. It appears to prefer the coarse grasses and herbs of its native swamps to the fodder generally supplied to domestic animals, and evidences its swamp- loving habits by the readiness with which it takes to water. The horns are of consid- erable size, three-cornered in section, thickened and annulated at the base as in the African forms. An Indian variety, with colossal horns, -B. ami, is the giant of his tribe, and appears to be as formidable an antagonist in the hunt as the species next to be described. The commonest form of African Buffalo is Subalus caffer, which was once distrib- uted over all Africa south of the equator, but now is undergoing gradual extermination UNGULATES. 323 through the vahie of its hide. At one time common in Cape Colony it is now scarce even in Zulu laml, and hunters go as far as the Matabele country to secure the hides. Like its congeners to be afterwards referred to, tlie forehead is short and convex, the base of the horns, especially of the male, become wider with age, so as to cover (and protect) the skull, and the hairy covering is scanty except on the ears, which are Fie. 157. — Bubalus cajflr, African butfalo. of great size. The general color of Ji. cajf'er is black, the hoi-ns are much larger than those of the other species, being as much as twice the length of the skull : they decline from the horizontal and dip downwards and backwai-ds, the tips, however, being inclined forwards. The whole of the basal anterior surface is raised into convex bosses. This is the largest of the African buffaloes, attaining a height of fifty-nine inches at the shoulders. All African hunters agree that this species is one of the most dangerous to approach, especially when wounded ; for a fallen buffalo will very often recover sufficiently to 324 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. make a last attack more desperate than any former one. One of the most recent travellers, Holub, in an account of " Seven years' residence in South Africa," observes : — "Nothing can exceed the cuiming tliat a liuft'al(.i will exliibit when it is wounded or infuriated. Having better powers of discrimination, it is more wary than a hippo- potamus, and consequently is not so dangerous to an unarmed man ; but once provoked it will fight to the !)itter end. It generally makes a little retreat, and conceals itself behind a bush, where it waits for the hunter, an, then paused an instant, staggered, and let its head sink down as if amazed. I was just about to get hold of a second rifle when there came a sudden crash, and while I was still sitting the animal haok may ]>erhaj)S be best compared to the jerks of a machine set in motion by watch springs. It will allow any dog except a greyhound to approach it within quite a moderate distance ; it will gaze as if entirely unconcerned while the dog yel])S and howls, ajiparently waiting for the scene to come to an end, when all at once it will spring with a spasmodic leap into the air, and alighting for a moment on the groTind six feet away will leaj) up again, rejieating the movement like an india-rubber ball bounding and rebounding from the earth. Coming to a standstill it will wait awJiile for the dog to come close again ; but ere long it recommences its springing bounds, and extricates itself once more from the presence of danger. And so, in alternate periods of repose and activity, the chase goes on till the antelope, wearied out as it were by the sport, makes off completely, and becomes a mere .speck on the distant plain. "But the agility of the nimble creature cannot save it from destruction. Since the discovery of the diamond-tields thousands of them as well as of the allied species, the blessbock and the black gnu, have been slain. The Dutcli farmers, who are owners of the districts where the antelopes aViouud, are excellent shots, and tjieir worst enemies. On their ]ieriodical visits to the diamond-fields they always cany with them a ricli spoil, and M-hilst I was there in the winter months, from May to Sej^tember, I saw whole wagon-loads of gazelles brought to the market. Nevertheless, in si^ite of the slaughter, it is a kind of game that as 3'et has by no means become scarce, and it is sold in the daily markets at 'Kimljerley' and 'Dutoitspan' at prices varying from three to seven shillings a head. Sjiringbok hunting is interesting, and is generally done on horseback. The horses, which have been reared on these grassy plains, are well accustomed to the burrow-holes and ant-hills with which they abound, so that they give their rider no concern, and allow him to concentrate all his attention upon his sport. A gallop of about two miles will usually bring the huntsman within a distance of two hundred yards of a herd of flying antelopes. A slight pressure of the knees suflices to bring the horse to a standstill, when its rider dismounts and takes a deliberate aim at the victim. Amongst the Dutch Boers the most wonderful feats of skill are performed in this way, and I have known an expert )narksman bring down two run- ning antelopes by a single shot from his breech-loader. Other instances I have witnessed when, both shots having missed, or the second having been fired too late, the herd has scamjiered off to a distance of seven liuuinfre(pu'ntly sjiend a whole day waiting most p.atiently for the springboks to be driven sufKciently within nmge. I have myself on OIK' occasion seen a party of six of these skirmishers, after w.-itching with tlii' sublimest ]iatieiice for many hours, take their aim at an animal that had been driven off, with a roar that made the \ery ground tremlile ; the volume of smoke was immense; six dusky faces of the liecluianas rose from the grass ; every eye was full of exjiectation, but as the cloud rolled off it revealed the springbok bounding away merrily in the distance. The six shots had all missed. " The snare called the hojio-trap, described by Livingstone in his account of gazelle- hunting among the Bechuanas, I never saw .anywhere in use. It would jirobably be now of no avail, as the game is much wilder and less abundant than it was in his time. A still different mode of chasing springboks has been introduced l)y the English, who hunt with greyhounds, not using fire-arms at all. Mounted on horses that, in spite of beiTig unaccustonu'(l to the ground, do their work admirably, the pursuers follow on until the gazelles are fairly brought down by the dogs, although it not unfrequently liappens that the dogs get so weary and exhausted by the run that the chase has to be abandoned.'' Belonging to the same sub-family is the Pallah or I!o(Hh>bok of the Dutch i^JEpyceros melamptis). Buckley observes that this form occurs from Zululand far into Equatorial Africa. In the winter it is found in large herds which break up in the summer into ])arties of three, an old male and female and a young one. It is a wood-loving species found near water. '^Fhe male alone has horns, which may measure twenty inches, are lyrate, but ha\e in the miplut$ mcrf/t'ita, duyktM-bok. peak of about five inches long; in the males this growth is concealed by the short horns. Both kinds are distinguished by the glands of the lachrym.'il ducts. The madoqua has two pairs of these, one pair set under the roots of the ear, making a triangle of an area of half a square inch ; the other pair in the tear-pits eom])Osing a sort of pouch about an inch long, which consists of a deep fold of skin, and from which is discharged a viscous and colorless matter. Above the tear-glands, towards the nasal bone, there projects on each side from the frontlet a thick pad about three inches long, which seems to have an adenoid texture almost like a tumor. In the same way as with the Cervicapra these tear-glands, during any excitement, open themselves like the nostrils of a snorting-horse. The Deloo has only one pair of these glands which lie horizontally in a narrow streak across the hollow of the eyes. Both kinds are alike in never venturing into the low ground exposed to floods, and in preferring VOL. v. — 22 338 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. the rocky lands which are covered witli brushwood. They often i,'-et into the middle of a thicket and startle the huntsman by suddenly springing out, in the same way as the Ben-Israel or Om-digdig of Abyssinia (JVeotrcu/us heinpridluua). The flesh of both these antelopes is indifferent for eating as compared with the larger kinds ; that of the deloo when roasted having a singular acrid flavor which seems to suggest the unpleasantness of the glands." An allied genus (Tetraceros) is found in the hilly parts of India, and is singular among the antelopes in that it has four horns ( T. quadricorftig), two straight ones behind and two short conical ones above the hinder angle of the eyes. Fig. 162. — Alcelaphus caamn, hartebeest. With the ninth sub-family (AlcelajihiniB) we enter upon a grouj. of large antelopes accounts of which are to be met with in narratives of hunting exjieditions through all parts of Africa. One of the most frequently mentioned of them is the Ilartebeest {Alcelaphus caama), at one time very common throughout all the south of that conti- nent, but now very rare excei)t northwards towards the Zambesi and where it is pre- served in Natal. This antelo]ie is about five feet high at the shoulders, has a long upwardly-produced head furnished with horns which are close at their origin and again approxim.ate before finally diverging outwards and backwards. There are characteristic black marks on the face and legs, a white mark on the rump, and a bushy tail of glossy black hair. According^ to Schweinfurth the hartebeest is generally found in small herds, varying in numlx'r from five to ten, its haunts being chiefly uninhabited tracts of UNGULATES. 339 wilderness. In the cultivated districts it prefers the light bush forests in the vicinity of rivers thougli it is never seen actually in the river valleys. It takes its midday rest by standing motionless against the trunks of trees ; and by its similarity in hue to the background which it chooses it often eludes all observation. Tln-oughout the rainy season its color is bright — a sort of yellow brown, with a belly nearly white ; but in the winter it tones down to a dullish gray. Schweinfurth in the following language describes a peculiar habit: — "As we advanced, our attention was attracted by a herd of hai-tebeests sporting together scarcely five hundred paces from our path, antl ajiparently quite unconscious of the proximity of a caravan nearly half a league in length. So regular were their evolutions as almost to suggest the idea that they were being guided by some invisible hand ; they ran in couples like the horses in a circus, and kept going round and round a clump of trees, whilst the others stood in groups of three or four intently watching them ; after a time these in turn took their places, and two at a time raij their own circuit La the same fashion. How long these movements might have continued I cannot say, but my dogs soon afterwards made a dash in amongst the antelopes and sent them flying in all directions. The circumstance that I have now related may appear somewhat incredible, but I can only say that I had ample time to witness it, and that I was as much surprised at it as my readers can possibly be. I can only imagine, in explanation, that it was pairing-time, and that the animals were blind to all external danger. I remembered I had witnessed something similar three months previously upon the Dgoor. A party of three of us were rambling over a plain covered with short grass when we saw two little hegoleli-bocks (^1. madoqua) chasing each other upon one side of us ; they kept up that peculiar grunting tliat belongs to their kind. A moment after they were on the other side of us, in another moment they were back again, and by watching them we found that they kept making' a circle round tlie s]iot on which we were standing, and although we shouted and tried to scare them they persisted in twice more performing their circuit about us." Holub, who regards the hartebeest as the ugliest of antelopes, accounts for its comparative rarity in certain regions by the fact that it is much hunted for its hide by the Bamangwatos, who use the skins as dresses. When pursued its motions are very awkward, probably on account of the height of the shoulders. In fleetness and endur- ing power, however, it is only second to the Sassaybe (.4. hmata), which replaces it in Amaswazi, and is common along the Limpopo into Matabeleland and the Zambesi. Where rare in the south the sassaybe is now confined to the bush, lint northwards where it is common it is found in open country in herds of several hundreds. The sassaybe stands higher at the shoulders than the hartebeest ; its horns, about twelve inches long, form together a crescent with a general inclination backwards, but with- out the angular bend of the hartebeest's ; and its coloring is different, the black spots on the face being continuous, and the outsides of the upper ]iarts of the legs of a slate color. A. lichtensteini, the Konze of the Masubias, lives, according to Buckley, on open downs of the Manica plateau north of the Zambesi. Its horns are shorter and flatter at the base than those of the haitebeest, the general color is lighter, the forehead not so long, and the face destitute of the black mark. Another familiar species in hunting narratives is the Blesbok (.4. alUfmns). Though much hunted this species is still found in countless numbers in the Transvaal and the Orange Free State. In winter they migrate southwards, but in summer are 340 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. ouly found north of the Vaal. Both this and the nearly allied Bontebok or Pied Antelope (^4. pi/garga) are characterized by white marks on the face, to which indeed the blesbok owes both- its Dutch and Latin name. The blesbok is somewhat smaller than the bontebok, has a saddle of bluish color which contrasts with the purply- chocolate of the rest of the coat, while the bontebok has dark brown flank marks, although the rest of the coloring is not so gay as in the blesbok. The horns of the latter are greenish, whereas those of the bontebok are black. Two further species of this genus are figured on our plate ; these are A. tora, the Tetel of the Arabs, and II. sene(/alensis, ^\•hich, although of similar stature, are sufficiently distinguished by the shape of the horns. Fig. 163, Catobli'phaa > Fir,. 171. — Oribos mosr/iatii:', musk ox. skin of the kids is also everywhere in demand for the manufacture of gloves. The flesh of the adults is ill-flavored, but that of the kid, esiiecially in eastern countries, is much appreciated. It is chiefly for dairy purposes that goats can now in this country be regarded as of economic value. The goat supplies abundance of milk, especially rich in the caseous elements that furnish cheese, and requires much less dainty food than the cow or the ewe, so that it is deserving of being more generally introduced than it is at present. The last genus of the Bovine family is the singular Musk Sheep or Musk Ox of the polar regions {Ovihos moschatim), which is occasionally regarded as more closely allied to the oxen than might be inferred from the jjosition in which we discuss It here. It is now confined to Arctic America north of lat. 60°, but its remains are found in Siberia, Germany, France, and England, so that its present distribution is much more restricted than its past. The miportant generic characters are the following : — 352 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. The point of the snout is hairy, there being only a small naked spot between the nostrils ; the upper lip is not furrowed. The forehead is tlat, the broad bases of the horns meeting in the middle line, their general curvature downwards but the tips bent upwards. The tail is short and concealed by the long hairy coat. The whole length is about eight feet, the height at the shoulder over three feet. The general coloring is dark amber, which is darker on the face, shoulders, and sides, where the long liair is more abundant, but paler where, as on the back, the wool predominates. The wool is very fine, and is employed by the Eskimos for varioxis textile purposes. The abundant hairy coat is cast during the warm season, the animal appearing to have great difficulty in getting rid of it on account of its thickness. The odor of nmsk, to which the Ovibos owes its specific name, apjjears to be persistent in the flesh of the old males in the rutting season, but does not render that of the females at all unpalatable. None of those kille'hich was hollow. A friend who was passing observed the nose of a coon basking in the sun just above the top of the hollow, and called to the tenant, " There's a coon in that tree." " Yes, sir, and he's been there several seasons, and as I am not allowed to cut the tree down he seems to defy me. I have set traps, and my dog has watched him.^ but he won't watch him any more ; I think they have had a fight and he's got the worst of it. Well, I've shot him, and I know I've hit him, but it's all of no use, and the villain has several times got one of my chickens." To this our friend said, " We'll have a hunt to night, and I'll catch him." He was told that it would be of no use. CARNIVORES. 361 But he returned with two men and a hidder. A hall of cotton tied np compactly was fastened to a rope. The ball was soaked in kerosene oil. A man ascended the tree and, having seated himself astride a branch, he set fire to the ball, then lowered the blazing mass down into the deep retreat of the coon. Tliis was a new enemy, and the disconcerted animal came with a rush to the top of the hole, and looked at the man with such a desperate gaze that he cried in fright, " He's coming for me." " Pull up your fire-ball, quick, and stick in his face," shouted the leader. This the man did, dousing the blazing mass into the animal's face, which caused it to full heavily to the ground. The beast ran for the meadow, and the dog pursued. The raccoon had to stop to fight off the dog, which gave the men time to come up, and a club settled the business. The fact must not lie witiiheld that upon opportunity the coon becomes very intemperate. A publican in Nebraska had two tame coons, one, being the more gentle, was allowed wider freedom in the saloon. He acquired a craving appetite for strong drink, and became an adept in jjraetice at the bar, for when he could not get beer as a gift he learned how to help himself. The miserable craving actually sharpened the animal's wits. He would stretch himself on his back under the tap of the beer barrel, jjut his paws on the stop-cock, and manage to turn it but a little, and so let the beer trickle into his mouth, until he had got his fill. If not caught the liquid would flow on the floor, for he did not know enough to stop the tap by turning it back. In- toxication would soon follow, and the conduct and quadrupedal stagger of the drunken coon were singularly grotesque. His coinjianion never learned the trick, and so led a more virtuous life. In the northern United States the raccoon, in the seclusion of some deserted burrow, or the hollow of a tree, or some similar retreat, goes into hibernation, but it is neither so profound nor so continuous as is that of the bear. It is said also to have, like the bear, the tappen or enteric plug, which, owing to its smaller size, is seldom seen. In describing the face of this animal, Kennieott says, " A black stripe extends across the face, producing a spectacle-like appearance, which, togethei- with the animal's monkey-like movements, gives to its physiognomy a very comical expression." The animal walks on its toes, but stands on the soles of its feet. Its range is from British Columbia to Texas. In the lore of tlie native woodmen of New Jersey the belief prevails that there are two species of coons, the tree coons and the bank coons, the former being the larger, and having blacker feet. There is but one species, but there is an interesting differ- ence in habit. The one nests in the hollows of trees, the other in burrows made by itself in the sides of ditches and streams. These burrows have an egress as well as an entrance. Near us was a ditch Avith the bank thus burrowed. A friend dug into one of them, and took out two little coons, which cried " like little babies." They were restored, but put to the wrong hole ; nothing could force them to enter it, so they were let alone, and at once sought and entered their own nest. The mother coon will bear from three to six little ones. They are born blind, and do not open their eyes until twenty or twentj'-one days old. Procyon hernandezii, the Black-footed Raccoon, sometimes called the Mexican Raccoon, is a southwestern species, and its home seems to be in California, Texas, and Mexico. It is somewhat larger, and, in general, the color is lighter. The habits probably are much the same. Says Baird, " This species bears a very close relation- ship to P. lotor, and without close comparison the differences are perhaps intangible." 362 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. The only other true raccoon known is the Procyon cancriuorotcs, the Crab-eater. In its own country, South America, it is called Agouara. It is somewhat larger than the North American sjjecies, but slimmer-looking, owing to its shorter fur. In truth it is not the fine handsome fellow tliat its cousin north of the equator is. As to the crab-eating propensities of the southern sjsecies, it should be said that in troi^ical climes, besides the water species, there are land crabs of large size and in great numbers. Were this so north, /otor would be as devoted a cancerite as his southern cousin cancrivorus. The NasuiniB or Coatis are now in order, of which the one genus is Nasua. The muzzle of this animal is extended into a long cartilaginous snout of extraordinary flexibility or rigidity, as the will of its owner may dictate. It can be so reflexed as to bend upward and backward. It can be so stiffened as to serve for a plough with which to furrow the earth in quest of worms and insects precisely as do the swine. The pelage is generally of a warm color, from reddish brown to bright chestnut, and in the lower parts of the body in some instances toning up into a warm yellow, almost orange. But the colors are so diverse as to lead J. A. Allen to say, " Few of the terrestrial Ferae present a greater range of color-variation, wholly independent of sex and age, than do the sj^ecies of eoati." The pelage is quite thick and long. The tail is long, bushy, and ringed like the raccoon's, but more distinctly. Like the coon it is a most omnivorous feeder, eating and drinking everything in its way, not except- ing whiskey and brandy, especially if sweetened. Its habits are largely arboreal, it being an admirable climber, and descending trees head first with perfect facility. The two species of coati have received not less than thirty names from systematists. It is curious too that the old hunters both in Mexico and Brazil seem to be at fault, in each country two species being recognized which really in each case are but one. Prince Maximilian heard from the Brazilian hunters that they had two kinds of coati, one small and slender and associated in large companies, while the other was larger, less slender, and lived singly or in families ; the first being termed by them Cuati de Bando, the second Cuati Mundeo. He therefore named the former Nasua socialis, and Cuati Mundeo he named JV. solitario. Afterwards De Saussure recognized two .species from Mexico under the two names of IMaximilian, which the natives called Tejon de manada and Tejon solo. Hensel afterwards cleared uj) the error by showing its cause, which was due to age and sex. He says the old males live solitary, hence the name N. soUtaria. "At a j)articular time of life, that is to say when the long canines begin to become worn, the old males leave the troops, of which, in company with the old and the young females, they had hitherto formed a p.art, and afterwards only run with them in the pairing season. . . . Solitary females ;xre never met with, unless, perhaps, they have been driven from the herd in hunting them." For the above we .are indebted to Allen who has done effective work in unravelling this terribly tangled skein of the systematists. There are only two species, one in Mexico and one in Brazil. Nasua rufa, tlie Brazilian Coati, is somewhat the smaller in size of the two species, and its pelage tliough thick is harsh and coarse ; the long hairs of the dorsal surface are usually black-tipped, the ears rather longer and more pointed than those of the other species. "Tlie species appears to range over the greater part of the continent of Soutli America, certainly from Surinam to Paraguay, and from the Atlantic coast to the Andes, over wliich extensive region it is one of the most abundant of the carnivorous mammals." m^^c^i:^ }®^N.\'1C-X"~x -.*,.,-, Nasiia rnj'a. coati. CARNIVOHES. 363 We now propose to give in sonic detail tlie true inwartlness of a tame female red coati l)y condensing our account of the same in the Pojnilar Science Monthly, Novem- ber, 1872. We called her Jack, sometimes "Nosie," but science had already named her JVastia, and in a matter-of-fact way, for the word inter])reted means Nosie. The animal was about the size of a cat, with a thick, coarse fur, of a brownish hue on the back and sides, and underneath shades from yellow to orange. The long tail was ornamented by a series of black and yellowish-brown rings. To Nasua her nose was important. Inajipeasably inquisitive, she was incessantly intruding that organ into every thing. Having made no allowance for an extra-tropical temperature, this little South American made a failure in an attempt to lift with her nose the lid of a jjot in the cook's domain. It was enough that any thing was hollow to excite her curiosity, which was of a thoroughly simian type. The dinner-bell was turned over; but, unable to detach the clapper and chain, it was soon abandoned in disgust. A round sleigh- bell received more persevering attention. Unable to get her nose or paws into the little hole at the side, the clatter within set her wild with excitement, and evoked a desperate attack on the little annoyance with her teeth. She then gave it up as a bootless job. A bottle of hartshorn was next made the subject of investigation. She was not in the least disconcerted by the drug. In fact, she had a strong nose for such things. A man gave her his tobacco-box. Resting it on the floor between her two paws, which possessed uiicommon flexibility, she turned it over and over, round and round, exercising alternately her nose, claws, and teeth ujion it with great energy, hut to no avail. It seemed that the smell of its contents infatuated her, as she showed no disposition to sto]i. The man opened the box for her. She was in ra])tnre. In went the nose, also both front paws. Vei'y soon that wonderfully mobile organ had separated every fibre, so that the mass seemed trebly increased. The same man let her have his dirty pipe, when her velvety nose was instantly squeezed into the rank nicotian bowl. It would be wrong to infer that Nasua's ]irying jirojiensity never got her into trouble. In tlie following instance, speaking metaphorically, she put her foot into it: — Tiie old cat had just finished her naji, and was stretching herself, an operation which means that she stood with her four feet close together, the limbs elongated, the back rounded up like that of a camel, the head erect and drawn back, and the mouth yawning widely. Such a sight Nosie had never seen, hence it must be looked into. So in a trice, erect, and resting flatly on lier hind-feet like a little bear, she put her arms round Tabbie's neck, and, reeking with nicotine, down went that inquisitive nose into the depths of the feline fauces. This unwarrantable intrusion was met by a reception more feeling than felicitous, judging from the haste with which Nasua withdrew to a corner of the room to ruminate on the untoward incident. Her method of relieving the injured member was itself original. She placed it between her paws, holding it tiglitl_y, then jerked it through them, giving a violent sneeze every time it came out. That siu-ezing was geiiuine, liecause it was involuntary. Both hartshorn and nicotine had failed to get up anything respectable in that line ; but that catnip, pure and simple, did the business fineh-. Quite pretty was the pattern of the ^^nimal's ears; they were so clean, trim, soft, and small. Though rather pert, they had an air about them that was really amiable, and such as the canine-fancier would pronounce elegant. She was not averse to a little fondling, and I well remember the first time she climbed upon my lap. Those 364 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. pretty ears suddenly quivered. The ticking of my watch had excited her. Down goes that ubiquitous, utilitarian organ into the watch-pocket. Failing with the nose alone, she makes a desperate effort with that organ and both fore-feet all at once. Still unable to evict that case of mystery, she thrusts her nose down by its side, and for several minutes, with simian quaintness, listens to the ticking of mortal time. On the above occasion coati was allowed the liberty of going to sleep on my lap, while I gave myself up to the enjoyment of my book. Her nap finished, I did not notice when she left my lap. Soon a noise was heard like the tearing of paper. The wonderful little beast had abstracted my pocket-diary, and in violation of all propriety was making heavy extracts in a litter-ary way. Those keen incisors were scissoring away — a full leaf at a time ! She had even filched a five-dollar note out of the pouch of the book, and, by way of change, had converted it into fractional cun-ency. In the same manner, though not to the same extent, the nose of the Nasna, like the same organ of the elephant, projects far beyond the mouth. At our first acquaint- ance with the animal we were anxious to see if it could drink out of a deep, narrow vessel. So a mug containing about a gill of milk was set before her. She instantly turned up the proboscis toward her forehead, and, in the easiest way imaginable, lapped the vessel dry. The organ was not even wet. The sight, though comical, was really pretty. It was the only time that I had ever seen the turning up of the nose at one's friends so deftly and gracefully done. And she could turn the same organ in a con- trary way quite as easily. The first time she confronted a mirror, startled at behold- ing her own counterfeit presentment, instantly her countenance fell — very low indeed ; for her nose bent downward, and actually curved under the chin. Of course the word chin is not here anatomically correct. Her proboscis now looked like that of a tapir in repose. This singular grimace, with its squeaky little grunts, presented a verj^ funny manifestation of surprise. Sometimes for an airing the animal was tied by a long tether to a flower-stand on the lawn. It shovild have been mentioned that she was literally omnivorous. She would catch a mouse and eat it all up. The heads of poultry given her in the kitchen would be eaten ravenously. The same is true of sweetmeats, which she occasionally got by stealth. She would drink everything, not even sto2)l)ing at brandy. She had nearly all the appetencies of the domestic swine; and the end of her proboscis was essentially a swine's snout. I now beheld the use of this singularly-tipped organ. And an interesting sight it was to see that little thing jilough up the greensward with the tip of her nose — and so easily. Here appeared the veritable swinish acuteness of scent for insects and worms, and the swinish facility for rooting in the ground. With surprising rapidity furrow after furrow was made, of about the width of a man's thumb. Whenever a worm or insect was discovered, as when drinldng, the nose waa curved up, so that the mouth could extract the object from the furrow. The tail of Nasua is quite suggestive of the raccoon ; but Nasua's tail is a much handsomer affair — longer, and with rings more numerous and of gayer colors. With admirable intelligence our pet put this beautiful apjiendage to a remarkable use. She was tethered by a string to a chair, and an egg was put on the floor at a tantalizing distance. She could just touch it with a ]iaw, and that touch caused the coveted prize to roll out of reach. She turned her hind-feet toward it, jiulling hard so as to stretch her neck ; still, even with a hind-foot, she could not touch it. The logic of events was now, " get it if yoxr can ! " All this Nasua well understood, for she turned tail on the subject altogether — not, however, as did Reynard on the grapes, but strategically. CARNIVORES. 365 She gathered herself up and looked at the coveted object with speculative eyes. Then she swung herself round again, pulling hard on the tether by the neck. She then curved the tip of the tail so as to make a little hook. Now she grasps the base of the tail with one paw, as with a hand, thus stiffening and steadying the organ. She next slowly and cautiously rolled the egg, by the curved tip of the tail, through a section of a circle, until it was brought within reach of one of the front feet. The egg was now seized ; sitting on her hind-feet, like a bear, she cracks it, extracts the contents, and neither spills a drop on the floor, nor so much as soils that wonderful nose; for among her many gifts is her soft and extensile tongue. This caudal ex- pedient is sometimes found with the American show-monkey when a bit of ginger- bread is put by the roguish boys at an inconvenient distance ; but, as in such instance the tail is prehensile, is in fact the monkey's fifth hand, such feat is no great shakes after all, but is quite in keeping with what the organ is cut out for. It is at most but little more than that instinct which structural or functional capacity might evolve. But in Nasua's case it is animal contrivance pure and simple. There is, too, a latent fact which peeps out here ; for this bending of the caudal tip looks to the faculty possessed by its cousin, the kinkajou, the extremity of whose tail has a prehensile or grasping faculty of high perfection. She showed considerable attachment — her preference being the ladies. She would often, when tied up in the kitchen, sit for many minutes, her little black eyes looking wistfully at the door through which the mistress of the house had passed, and all this time crying pitifully. It was a plaintive cry in the minor key, and yet a little funny, for it g-eatly resembled the chirping of a cricket, though not quite so shrill, and the intervals between the notes were a little longer. This tiny cry required for every note a muscular exertion, extending far down the sides of the body, which led to the suggestion that "the plaint came from the de])ths of the heart." The attachment of this interesting animal to her new home was intense. I fre- quently caused her to be taken to the commons and set at liberty among the trees. Considering that the coati is a thoroughly arboreal animal, one would suppose that this would awaken the dormant natural habits ; but she would invariably hasten home by the shortest route possible ; and if on her return she found the door closed would sit on the steps and cry. A word is necessary as to the peculiar temerity of this animal. From two points it was liable to give way to extreme impulsiveness — the excitement of opposition or of inquisitiveness. If anything attacked her, whatever the object or the odds might be, she would face the assailant, and close in with her shrill little squeaks of rage, and in a wild sort of dash. If one slapped her, whatever might be her terror, she would rush upon and snap at the hand. The dog-like sagacity of running under the table or chair was not her way. Hers was the peccary instinct of rushing upon danger. No monkey could be a more imjiortunate or im]3ertinent teaser than was our coati ; but Jocko shows sagacity with his jokes, for he always adroitly leaps aside of consequences. I have watched our pet tease the cat with imperturbable persistency, imtil Tabbie, unable to tolerate m.atters any longer, has struck her sharp claws into that soft proboscis, then moved away, leaving her persecutor dazed with astonishment. Then in a moment forgetting all she would turn her attention to the setter-dog, and, despite his growls and menacing teeth, would keep up a systematic worrying — catching at his tail, nipping at his legs, and even poking her nose into his ears. At length the poor brute, fairly goaded into rage, seized her like a rat, and, but for my prompt 366 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. interference, that would have been the last display of Nasua's rashness. One moi-ning she got into the dining-room as we were at breakfast. She took possession of madam's lap. Her first act was to poke her nose at the coffee-urn. This evoked a squeak of 23ain. Her next essay was on a cujj of hot coffee, with a similar result. She now smelt the contents of the sugar-bowl. This discovery so excited that " sweet will " of hers that instant removal became imperative. Later in the day she tried to captui'e a wasp. She struck it down and held it a second under her foot. This was met by an appeal addressed solely to her understanding, of so pointed a nature as made her chatter with distress. Disabled in one wing, the insect could not fly away. Although still smarting from the wounded foot, the moral of the lesson is only half learned. Coati cannot give "little yellow-jacket" up. So she tries the wasp again — this time with her nose. Alas, that sting ! Miss Nasua now finds that other little folks besides i..^.m^M4 herself can utilize their tails ; for in proof of this she receives not merely a duplicated but an intensified experience, such as exacts a staccato outgush of agony of truly simian expression. In Nasua narica, the Mexican Coati, the pelage is full, long, and soft, and the hairs on the dorsal surface tipped with rufous, fulvous, or whitish. This species doubtless is similar in habit to the Brazilian. Its range as known at ])resent seems to to be from tlie Isthmus of Panama northward throughout Central America and the warmer parts of Mexico. It may be said of both species that each one seems to be the sole representative of the genus in its own range, for the two species have not yet been obtained in the same area. The thii'd family of these coon-bears is the Cercoleptid.'E, with its one genus and one species, Cercoleptes caudivolmdus. This is the Kinkajou, or Potto, of South America. From nose to base of tail the animal is about eighteen inches long, and the CARNIVORES. 36T tail is about twelve inches. The body is about as large as a good-sized oat. The pelage is light or yellowish color. The snout is short and a little tip-tilted, enough to impart an air of inquisitiveness. Like its neighbors, the South Amerieaii monkeys, it has a true prehensile tail, which it can coil with two or three turns round the branch of a tree. This faculty, with its singular quadrunianous dexterity, for it can put food to its mouth with either its fore or its hind feet, caused it formerly to pass amotig naturalists as a lemui-, one of the lowest of the monkeys. As such it had a systematic name. Lemur flavus, the Yellow Lemur. Its dental system is that of an herbivore, and its rightful place is among the Arctoidea. Its hands have no opposable thumbs, and its fingers are webbed for nearly their whole length, yet it can hold food in one hand and break it up and feed itself with the other hand. While the heels of the hind- feet are well raised, it walks with the soles of the fore-feet on the ground. The tongue is long, slim, very extensile and flexible, and it can insert it into small and deep places in search of insects, or the honey nests of the wild bees, in whose sweets it delights, and of which it is very destructive. It is arboreal in its habits; a facile climber, descending head downward, like the coati. It does not like the light, but seems to suffer from it, hence it is only active at night. Though known to be fierce and courageous in the wild state, when tamed it makes an intelligent and even affectionate pet. Its round head and flat cat-like face give the jiretty little animal a knowing and attractive look. With its caudal apprehension and all-round handedness it is admir- ably endowed for its arboreal life. The last family of these procyon aretoids is the Aelueid^. It contains the Wah, or Panda, Aelurus fulge7is, the most elegant animal in the entire group. It is scarcely larger than the domestic cat, and excels in the brilliancy of its pelage, which, how- ever, is of no great commercial value, althougii the fur is thick and soft. It is curious that in its very splendor, this little beast disregards, so to speak, nature's pattern of the coloration of the pelts of animals. As a rule, the darker colors are laid on above, and the lighter ones below. The fur on panda's back is a warm, rich cinnamon-red, a tawny yellow or fawn color behind, and a deep black beneatli. Over all this is the rich gloss of a satiny lustre. There is some white on the head and face, and the long, ringed tail is like a lady's boa, of alternate bands of chestnut red and yellow. Thus arrayed it is not to be wondered at that Cuvier should pronounce this little animal the most beautiful of quadrupeds. The soles of its feet are covered with wool for the long winters of its home in those vast elevations. It delights in the sides of streams and mountain torrents. It has large claws, which are half retractile, and its walk is ])lantigrade. In fact it is very bear-like, both in structure and habit. A panda in the London zoological gardens is described as sucking the water like a bear, not lapping like a dog or a cat. When enraged at its keeper it rushes towards him on its hind legs, like Bruin himself, and in like manner strikes with its claws protruded. It vents its anger in a spitting noise, and at other times utters a weak, squeaking call-note. On level ground it runs like the weasels, in a jum]iing gallop, keeping its back arched." The panda was made known to science by General Hardwicke, who obtained it in the eastern Himalayas. It was long the only species known of its genus, and was held to be a type peculiar to the higher Himalayas ; hence the interest in the animal w-as considerable. Now, however, both these facts are modified. The Abbe David has discovered the panda in the high mountains of eastern Thibet. He also gave to the world at the same time, in 1874, a new member of its family, which Alphonse Milne- 368 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. Edwards has named Aihiropus melanoleuciits. The interesting features are the great size, and the pure, snowy whiteness of the new species, suggesting even the Arctic bear. In external appearance it resembles a large white bear, with a black band across the back. Further, says " Nature," " These two genera constitute a special family of carnivores, representing in the Pahsarctic region the Procyonidae of the New World. AUwopus is a large, bear-like animal, clad in snow-white fur. It inhabits the highest forests, and is called by the Chinese hunters ' Pae-Shioung,' or white-bear. Its food is said to be of a vegetable character." This concludes the first section of our group Arctoidea, namely, the Arctoidea' procyoniformia ; and this discovery by Pere David of the great white bear-like Ailuro- pus, joins our coon-arctoids so naturally to the true bears as to make tlie link almost imperceptible. Fig. 176. — Aelurus fitlgens, panda, wall. As we have now reached the Arctoidea typica, that is, the Uksid^, or true bears, we can better discuss here the most marked peculiarities of the type — in a word, the most bear-like characters. The true bear is entirely plantigrade. When walking, the soles of all the feet are put flat on the ground. Tlie step seems to a degree clumsy, awkward, and, beyond necessity, heavy. How different is this from tlie movements of tlie digitigrade cat, who steps so daintily, gracefully, and lightly, and, if need be, so softly and silently, on the very tips of its toes. Neither is the bear's countenance at all prepossessing, or the cut or quality of its coat attractive. But " the cat has a clean- cut, rounded face, with beautifully chiselled nostrils, and thin li|)s. The bear has a long snout, almost like that of a pig. The fur of the cat is usually short, and brilliantly colored ; that of the bear is long, shaggy, coarse, and sombre." The cats are almost exclusively flesh-eaters. As a rule, the bears are vegetarians, though all will eat in- sects,, and the most of them seem to be fond of ants, as if they had an appetency for formic acid ; and generally the bears can easily acquire a taste for flesh. It is found. CARNIVORES. 369 liowever, in nieuagerie practice, tliat if restricted to vegetable food, tliey will be con- tent and will thrive. For his vegetable diet we find a corresponding adaptation of tlie bear's teeth, for though it has the same dental set, as to number, as the dog, yet they are greatly modi- tied in form. The incisors and canines do not differ materially from tliose of the dog; hut the cliange is veiy marked in the last premolar and all the molars, which, instead ly comical, and the entire performance constitutes a grotesque be- seechment which is sure to win the cake from the laughing spectators. In India this animal is called Aswail. It is the juggler-bear of that country, and is tliere what the brown bear is to the strolling mountebanks of Europe. There is this difference, however : the street showman of Europe loses nothing by having his beast handsome and in good condition ; whereas the Indian juggler makes a telling point in the positive ugliness of his animal. It is mild and submissive when tamed, and to some degree even affectionate, and it has sufficient intelligence to be taught a few interesting tricks. The fur of aswail is black, except a little dirty whitish on the nose and tips of the feet. It has a characteristic V- shaped mark of a yellowish white on the breast. Its black coat is very shaggy, with a not prepossessing, unkempt aspect. It is thick and very long, especially on the back, neck, and head, where it overhangs the eyes almost like beetling brush. And not without reason is this uncouth coat, for the mother bear puts her shaggy robe to a true maternal use by cai-rying her little ones upon her back when too feeble to keep pace with her, the ample fur affording a good hold for the cubs. Mehirsus labiatus, slotli bear, large-lipped bear. CARNIVORES. 3jj The appetency of the jungle bear is not naturally towards flesh. Only hunger can make that acceptable. It lives on vegetables, fruits, wild honey, and insects. °It has a great love for tlie large Indian ants, and a singular aptitude for obtaining them — the ransacked ant-hills often giving the trail to the hunters of the bear. It s^'eems that our bear is an accomplished sucker and blower. Says Tickell, "It is by this enabled to ]irocure its common food of white ants and larvae with ease. On arriving at an ant-hill, the bear scrapes away with the fore-feet until he reaches the large combs at the bottom of the galleries. He then, with violent puffs, dissipates the dust and wmnbled particles of the nest, and sucks out the inhabitants of the comb by such forcible inhalations as to be heard at two hundred yards' distance or more. Large larva; are in this way sucked out from great dej.ths under the soil." It must not be understood that the animal does all tliis with jierfect impunity. When attackino- the nests of the wild bees and the homes of the white ants, the nose, lijis, eyelids, ancl toes "get It," for the plucky insects, made furious, go for the vulnerable parts of the invader; on which occasion it is supposable that aswail's blinking and nasal waggery serve a good purpose. " ^^ As handsome is that handsome does, it is hardly the fair thing to sjieak of this animal as the sloth bear. The native hunter does not so regard' it, but entertains a prudent fear of its prowess, and admiration of its good qualities. Tennent describes the pursuit of a terrified native by a she aswail with her two cubs. " This native had on him an unfailing charm against bears. He had unexpectedly fallen on the beast, and despite the charm he fled with all the speed that terror could excite. The bear kept gaining on him, she running on all four feet, when a ball from a hunter broke her shoulder. But this did not stoj, the enraged animal, for she still pursued the man but now on her two hind legs. A second discharge of the gun caused the courao'eous creature to turn and retreat, her cubs keeping uit as well as they could. The'poor fellow when rescued was unable to speak, and for weeks his intellect seemed con- fused." And it is no wonder that a man should have been badly frightened under such circumstances. The jungle bear has a fearful Avay of attacking the'face and eyes tearing with its claws. ' This animal might be called the cave-bear of India, as it is said to live in the mountain caves or hollows in the rocks. Attaining a length of from four to five feet, and strong, and ferocious, it becomes a not mean antagonist to encounter. Thouo-h fierce in its wild state, it is very mild in captivity, but carries then an air of melan- choly. It is said to have very tender feet, which, if compelled to travel on the hot ground, get badly burned, so as sometimes to disable it, an advantage which the hunters know how to take. Thus the animal courts the shade. The locomotion of the jungle bear is a little curious. While standing still the feet are pretty wide apart, but when walking or running there is an inward swino-ino- of the limbs so that the forward feet cross each other." With its uncouth, shaggy c1)at Its swaymg, lumbering gait, its grotesque mobility of muzzle and lips, and owin.^ to its deciduous front teeth, the edentate aspect when the mouth is opened, its depressed head, hillocky back, short limbs — in fact, in the entire make-up of the aswail, it is singularly oictre even for a bear. The genus Hdarctos, meaning Sun Bear, strictly embraces but one species, miarctos malayanus. The Malayan Bear, or Bruang, is confined to the Indo- Malayan sub-region, that is to the Malayan peninsula and the neighboring islands, Borneo, Sumatra, and Java. It is much smaller than the Himalayan bear, not exceed- 372 NATL- HAL HLiTORY OF MAMMALS. ing four feet and a Imlf in lengtli. The fur is black, beconiing brownisli on tlie nose, and for a bear is fine, short, close, and glossy. On the chest is a crescentic white mark, or in the Bornean variety of -the species a heart-shaped, onmge-culored jiutch. The claws are of great length — which remark, in a greater degree, is true of the tongue. The great flexibility and power of extension of this organ give it great facility in probing wild-bees' nests, and the retreats of insects. Says Dr. Jerdan, in " Mammals of India": — "The sun bear is generally found at a considerable elevation, nine to twelve thousand feet, and often close to snow ; but in winter it descends to five thousand, and even lower sometimes. It lives chiefly on fruits and roots, apricots, walnuts, ajiples, currants, etc. ; also on several grains, barley, Indian corn, buckwheat, etc. ; and in winter chiefly on various acorns, climbing the oak trees and breaking down the branches. They are very fond of honey. Now and then they will kill sheep, goats, etc., thus occasionally eating flesh. This bear has bad eyesight, but great power of smell, and if apjiroached from windward is sure to take alarm. A wounded bear will sometimes show tight, but in general it tries to escape. It is said sometimes to roll itself into the form of a ball, and then roll down steep hills if frightened or wounded. If met suddenly where there is no means of escape, it will attack man at once ; and, curious to say, it always makes for the face, sometimes taking off most of the hairy scalji, and frightfully disfiguring the unfortunate sufferer. There are few villages in the interior where one or more indiviihials thus mutilated are not to be met with." The Bruang has a smallish head and a short neck, which is very strong, enabling it to tear up the great plantains. It is also destructive to the cocoanut groves. As this nut and the banana constitute so largely the sustenance of the natives, the animal is regarded as a pest. When tamed it shows so much affection and has so many droll Wfiys as to make it an annising and prized pet. Even when a caged captive it is in constant motion, and this not the painfiUly monotonous, automatic movement of the white bear, so indicative of a sense of deprived freedom, or the mild melancholy of the captive honey bear, but it is an activity which seems the irrepressible outcome of a brimfulncss of life. Although in many of its aspects this restlessness is very ludi- crous, it is really amial)le animal gush. At any rate it makes the bruaiig a star cai'd in the menagerie. It will walk upon its hind-legs as if upon a constitutional that meant business, when most unexpectedly the promenade is arrested, and, still standing on its hind-legs, the flexible body goes into a series of indescribable contortions. Putting the head on the floor, and tilting the tailless end in air, it goes over, and comes down in a heap, thus achieving a somersault to a degree clumsy and ludicrous. Then comes a pause, as if for the moment it had exhausted its talent in the line of ursine gymnasts. Now, unconsciously, as some humans do, it turns buffoon. Mounted on its hind-legs, swaying its pliant body as if it were a billow of sarcode, gesticulating with its fore- limbs, protruding its long tongue to an inordinate extent, then fetching it in with a jerk and a cluckiiig sound — this clownish role is a source of merriment to the spectators. Perhaps this good temper it is that makes the liruang more entertaining than the honey bear, albeit the inimitable facial pranks of the lattei'. If "my Lord Mayor's fool" was accomited a wise man by the epicures because "he knew what was good," then was Sir Stamford Raffles' tame bruang well endowed with worldly wisdom. Though a jiatron of learning, the founder and first president of the Zoological society, and a famous author, yet Sir Stamford is more widely known l>y his graphic story of his tame Malayan bear, which, notwithstanding its being often CARNIVORES. 373 cited, it would be culpable in us to pass by. At any rate a brief extract must be given. Says the knight, "He was brought up in the nursery with the children; and, when admitted to my table, as was frequently the case, gave a proof of his taste by refusing to eat any fruit but mangosteens, or to drink any wine but champagne. The only time I ever knew him to be out of humor was on an occasion when no champagne was forthcoming. He was naturally of an affectionate disposition, and it was never found necessary to chain or to chastise him. It was usual for this bear, the cat, the dog, and a small blue mountain bird, or lory, of New Holland, to mess together, and eat out of the same dish. His favorite jilayfellow was the dog, whose teasing and worrying were always borne and returned with the utmost good humor and playfulness. As he grew uji he became a very powerful anim;'.!, and in his rambles in the garden he would lay hold of the largest plantains, the stems of which he could scarcely embrace, and tear them up by the roots." The Bornean sun bear lias been described as a distinct species, under the name Melarctos euj'yspiliis. Though it shows some small variation from the Malayan sun bear, it is not enough to claim the dignity of a sjiecies, and is simply a variety. It is questionable if the average difference of liabit, even, amounts to a characterization. Both have a singular trick of playing with their food, like tlie raccoon, though in a much less offensive way. The bruang will take its biscuit from the keeper, and, lying on its back, will turn it over and over with front ]iaws, occasionally holding it with all four paws brought together, and it is said of the Bornean variety that it will, standing on the hind-legs while feeding, put the food it cannot hold in its paws carefully on the paws of the peds, as if to keeji it off the floor on some consideration of cleanliness. Our next form is Tremnrrtoa oniatus, sometimes found written as Ursus ornatus, and again Helarctoi ornatus. The meaning intended by its sjiecitic name is the orna- mented beai-, the ornamentation, like that of the painted brave, consisting in a display of countenance combining the grave and the comical. It is popularly called the Spec- tacled Bear, because of a light-colored ring around each eye, through which, as if they were goggles, a pair of mild optics gaze with a quasi-owlish wisdom. Geographically it has a singularly isolated home, its range being limited to the high mountain forests of Chili and Peru. The animal is about three and a half feet long, its pelage is black, and there is but one species in the genus. It really seems to have had a fossil ancestor in the post-pliocene period of South America; for in the caves of central Brazil, among millions of mammalian bones. Dr. Lund discovered the osseous relics of an extinct bear, to which was given the name Arctotherium, literally, the bear-beast, which Wallace says " is a genus closely resembling, if not identical with, that containing the spectacled bear of Cliili." This bear of the Cordilleras has been compared with the Malayan liear, and it has been even hinted that it might be only a variety of the same species. But when it is considered that the two species are found in such widely- different faunal provinces, the supposition is itself not less than extraordinary. The truth seems to be, that this bear is worthy to form a distinct grou]>. It is so mucli of a unique among the Ursidaj that the first systematists have deemed it deserving generic distinction, hence the reason for taking it out of f/j'««.s and creating for it the genus Tremarctos. With few, if any, engaging tr;uts in cajitivity, it is, however, spoken of as most comical and grotesque. Ursus arctos, tho Brown Bear, is widely spread, being found in "many parts of Eurojie, Norway, Russia, central Europe, Spain, in Siberia, Kamtschatka, and Japan, and in a part of the arctic regions of North America." In former times it was found 374 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. in Britain, whence it was imported by the Romans, under the name of the Caledonian bear, for the sports of the ainj^hitheatre. The brown bear of arctic North America, called the Barren-ground Bear by Sir John Ricliardson, " who found it on several occa- sions in the barren-grounds of the arctic zone," has been named Ursus richardsonii, although its right to be held as a distinct species is far from certain, it is so much like the brown bear. Fig. 177. — Ursos arctos, brown bear. Of the common brown bear, says one writer, it " is au awkward-looking brute, with sprawling gait, heavy body, and no tail to sjteak of. It is about six feet long, and about three or tliree and a half feet high at the shoulder. Its fur is longisli, rather woolly, and of a dark brown hue. It lives a solitary life, and, like manj' of its kind, has the curious habit of hibernating." As to the " awkward-looking," and the " sprawling gait," we beg leave to differ. The brown bear has a grace of its own, even if it be an ursine bearing. A Switzer last summer brought his brown bear to the writer's house, and put the animal through its paces on the greensward. The man CARNIVORES. 375 sang an air rather plaintive, and in a low voice, at the same time keeping up a soft dance movement. The bear, on its hind-legs, imitated him, and despite the natm'al ungainliness, the rhythm and grace of movement caused us surprise and pleasure to witness. The erect carriage of the beast was also remarkable. As it moved on its hind-feet the back made a perfectly straight perpendicular line. The annual was told to shake hands with me. It went through the motions, but the claws were so for- midable that a repetition of the politeness was declined, with thanks. At our request the man ordered it to climb a maple tree, at which the brute growled its reluctance, nor did it obey until urged by the threatening of the master's club. The boll of ■the tree was nearly eighteen inches through. The animal made good use of its claws as grapnels, relying upon that method more than on the hugging climb which is reputed of the bears, and it was observed, to our surprise, that when it had descended it jiuffed like one whose breath is well-nigh spent. The truth told, the brute had performed an unwilling task, witli a real outlay of physical exertion, leaving the im- pression on our mind tliat bear-climbing is done by main strength. A curious statement is made in resjiect to the brown bears of Scandinavia, that they persistentl}^, at night, scratch the soil away from the bottom of the telegraph poles. That undefinable humming of the wires at night deceives the animals into the belief that the sound is the buzzing of bees, hence the deluded brutes scratch to find the honey. Being the best known of any member of the ui'sine group, the brown bear has any amount of stories put to its credit. Some show large sagacity, others extraordinary affection. A judicious selection would be entertaining, had we room to spare for them. " The she-bear is said to be even more fiei-ce and terrible than the male, especially after she has cubbed, and her furious passions are never more fiercely exhibited than when she is deprived of her young. When she returns to her den, and misses the objects of her love and care, slie becomes almost frantic with rage. Disreganling every consideration of danger to herself, she attacks with great ferocity ever}' animal that comes in her way, and in the bitterness of her heart will dare to attack even a band of armed men. The Russians of Kamtschatka never venture to fire on a young bear when the mother is near; for if the cub drop she becomes enraged to a degree little short of madness, and if she get sight of the enemy will only quit her revenge with her life. A more desperate attempt can scarcely be performed than to carry off her young in her absence. Her scent enables her to track the plunderer, and unless he has reached some place of safety before the infuriated animal overtakes him, liis only safety is in drojaj^ing one of the cubs, and continuing his flight ; for the mother, atten- tive to its safety, carries it home to her den before she renews the pursuit." In some way it has come about that among the natives of both the Old World and the New, Bruin has secured for himself an almost superstitious respect. The Scandi- navian regards him as endowed witii superhuman capacities, and accredits him with " the strength of ten men, and the wisdom of twelve." On no account must he be «poken of disrespectfully ; nor is it wise even to allude to him with familiarity as " the bear." So there has grown up a euphemistic formality ; and in a quasi-reverence the beast is referred to as "the old man with the fur cloak," "the dog of God," "the Disturber," and similar dignified epitliets. In the Himalayas is a fine species known as the Indian White Bear, or the Isabel- line, Ursus isabellinus. The pelage is nearly white, though varying with age and 376 NATURAL HISTORY OF ^fA^r^^ALS. the season until it becomes almost a fawn color. Its claws are comparatively smalL It is by preference a vegetarian. It is held by some to be a variety of the Syrian bear. The Syrian Bear, the bear of the Bible, Ursies si/riacus, though not so abumlant, still roams in the mountains of Palestine. This beast can boast the oldest historical record of any of its tribe. It occurs so often in the Hebrew Scriptures, in historic mention, and in poetical figure and allusion, that a fair account of it could be made out from this source. It was the prowess of the youthful shepherd in killing a bear that had caught a lamb in his father's flock that gave the promise of his future career; but this statement shows that the vegetarian bear of Palestine, like our own black bear, became a carnivore under stress of want of food. In poetical allusions we find the roaming habits indicated, and the roaring is spoken of, and its "lying in wait," a trait so strongly feline that we hesitate at its interpretation. The maternal fury of this bear apj)ears in the fine simile of the pastoral poet Hosea, " I will meet them as a bear bereaved of her whelps." The bear of Palestine has a not distant alliance to the brown bear, but it is less sanguinary. " Its stature is lower, and in proportion to bulk longer, the head and tail more prolonged, and the color a dull buff or light bay, often clouded with darker brown. On the back is a ridge of long, semi-erect hairs, running from the neck to the tail. It is yet found in the elevated parts of Lebanon. In the time of the first Crusades these beasts were still numerous, and of considerable ferocity ; for during the siege of Antiocli, Geoffrey of Bouillon, according to Matthew Paris, slew one in defence of a poor woodcutter, and was himself dangerously wounded in the encounter." To our young readers es|iecially, considerable interest must be entertained for this species as the avengers of that stinging. Oriental insult of the young idolaters, who hootingly ordered the jirophet to "go up, thou bald-head." They were two she-bears, and the conjecture has been made that the beasts had lost their cubs, in which case numbers would not have deterred the infuriated animals from a slaughter- ous attack. Tlie following, for its moral and its humor, cannot be withheld. It was written in August, 1874: — " Several hundred persons attended the funeral of a tame bear near Boston a few days ago. An invitation to be present was sent to the Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, who responded as follows : ' Dear sir, — Many thanks for yoixr polite invitation to attend the obsequies of the lamented plantigrade. I am sorry that it will not be in my power to be present u]ion the melancholy occasion. I have a great resjiect for bears since those two female ones taught the children of Bethel and of Belial tliat they must not be rude to elderly persons. I think a loose bear or two might be of service in our community, and I regret much the loss of an animal who might have done so much as a moral teacher for the young of this city and its suburbs. I .am, dear sir, yours vei-y truly, O. W. Holmes.' " The Black Bear ( Urstis americamis) belongs to North America. Except a little on each extreme, its home is the temperate zone. " It weighs fi-om two hundred to four hundred ]iounds, is of a uniform black or deep color, and the hair is com]>aratively soft and glossy." It does not deserve to be called ferocious, as under ordinary circumstances it desires to get away from man. Said a bear hunter to me, "Once when without ray gun, I suddenly confronted a big black bear in the Adiri>ndacks. He stood and looked at me. You must not turn from them at such a time; that CARNIVORES. 377 woiilil invite attaok ;' but stmid your ground, giving the benst n clinnee to get away. I stood still, but liallooed at Iiitii. The bear turned, walking slowly, and once in a while looking behind him. Then he went off at a. run." Its natural food is berries, acorns, and, most generally, succulent ])lai)ts, even skunk-cabbago, and it eats freely the Indian turnip, Aristtima trq^hyllum, which, though farinaceous, has a juice so acrid that it burns worse than cap- sicum. Professor Tenney examined the stomach of a black bear killed in June, and founlander pays Bruin a reverence little less than devout. The American Indian holds the bear in much reverence, making profuse apologies to the dead brute before be feasts on him. But albeit his ajiologetic efforts to propitiate the ursine m.anes, a grim humor will steal over the reil man's devotion, for at the carrying away of ins dead captive, should any "greenhorn" be present he will be asked to lend a hand by lifting at the tail. There is still a dispute whether the Cinnamon Bear, llsiis cinnamoneiis, is a valid species or not. Baird describes it as a \ariety of the blat-k bear, a view worthy of general adoption. The hair resembles that of the black in texture. "The color is a nearly uniform dark chestnut or cinnamon, with a ]nn"plisli reflection in certain lights; the hairs become, however, a]>preciably paler towards the i-oots." The animal is still common in the Rocky ^Mountain regions, occupying the same ranges with the grizzly and the black, though ])erhaps commoner southwards than they. A news item recently mentions the capture, by a ]>arty, of nine cinnamons in one day. As to this variation of color, — in the Carolinas is the ' Yellow Bear,' doubtless the same species as the black. Robert Kennicott mentions an instance observed in Washington Territory, "in which four young were produced, part of which wei-e black, and the rest yellowish browni." Says Halsey, the trapper, "The American black bear is of two kinds. One is short-legged, and has a heavy body, sometimes weisihing Ave hundred pounds, ami is black all over. The other is longerdegged, not generally so heavy, and has a brown face. This one is a great racer." De Kaj^ sa3-s CARNIVORES. 381 the long-legged aiul the short-lcjjtjcd aii])i>;n"nico is duo to condition of the animal, one being plumper in flesh than tlio other. Speaking of his two tamo black bears, cubbed by the same dam, says Henry Chii^p, "One was what is called the 'ranger bear,' that is, it was long-legged, and long-bodied, and not so black, and with a little coarser fur than the other variety. The other was what is called a ' hog bear,' and was shorter-legged and blacker. So I am sure the hog bear and the i-.inger are one si)ecies." But Clapp was ■ A Umas hutrlljiliii, grizzly bear. a highly intelligent huntcM-. On tliis subject, trajipers as a class arc very positive. In fact, the "native woodsman wild" has his dogmas, and is himself a set dogmatist. Thus one of them delivered himself : "'Tain't no use argyin' this p'int. These two b'ars arn't sim'lar, nor no ways identical." The Grizzly Bear, Ursus horrihili.% is doulUless the most formidable of all the bears. He is the largest of the family, sometimes attaining a length of nine feet, and weighing eight hundred poimds. His coat is brownish or grizzly-gray. The long claws are sharp, chisel-edged, or gouge-shaped, and of great efficiency, both for tearing his prey 382 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. and digging. It has a shambling, cantering gait, the head swaying from side to side. The limbs indicate great strength. There is considerable range of color, the fur vary- ing from brown to almost black, and on the other extreme almost to white. " His haunts are the Rocky Mountains, and the plains eastward ; he is also found westwai-d as far north as latitude 61°. Ilis principal food is flesh, but he eats vegetables also. It is asserted that no animal will venture to touch a deer that has been killed and left by him. His strength is such that even the powerful bison falls an easy prey, and a single blow from one of his paws has been known to remove the entire scalp from a man's head. He is the only member of his family that will venture to attack man unchallenged, but it is said that he will retreat at the scent of a man if he can do so unobserved. He has attributed to him a peculiar habit of digging a pit for his fallen prey, in which he covers it over with leaves and rubbish. Hunters knowing this habit have saved their lives in desperate cases by feigning death without wounding the bear, escape being made while the latter is engaged with some other object. He is so tenacious of life that, unless shot through the heart or brain, his body may be riddled with bullets without fatal effect. One which had received two bullets through his heart, besides eight in other parts of his body, survived more tlian twenty minutes, and swam half a mile. The grizzly is not easily tamed unless captured at a very tender age, and even then he is rough in habits, and dangerous as a pet." We saw two young grizzlies once in Central Park, which were very amusing. They would stand up on their hind-legs, embrace each other, make believe bite, and wrestle^ then tumble and roll in a decidedly entertaining way. While thus engaged a child came to the cage with cake in its hand, and instantly the two seemingly innocent and good-natured things became two infantile fiends jjure and simple. Their cry was sharp, metallic, and piercing, and most ferocious, as they snapped at eacli other in a contest to get nearer to the cake against the cage. It is remarked that where the grizzly and the black bear abound the former avoids the latter. It must be that the greater beast has sufficient regard for his smaller cousin to wish him no harm, as he surely does not shun his black relative from any fear. It is almost certain that the only beast of which it entertains a wholesome dread is the puma or American panther, JFelis concolor. This lithe beast, weighing full- grown perhaps one hundred and fifty pounds, is the terror of the grizzly, for through sheer litheness and agility this great cat can vanquish this terrible bear. The Indiana say that they sometimes find a grizzly killed by a panther, but have never found a panther killed by a grizzly. To the Indian the grizzly is desirable for his flesh and pelt. The fact that to hunt him involves danger and adventure is now making the grizzly game for the white man. The last to be noticed of the true or typical bears is the Polar Bear, Thalassarctos maritimus. The color is a silvery or creamy white. Its physiognomy differs strongly from that of the other bears. It has the longest neck of any, and the facial angle is almost a straight line. " The crown, forehead, and muzzle lie in one plane. The claws are black, in strong contrast with the white fur. The soles are very long. The length of the brown bear's sole is one tenth of the whole length of the animal. That of the polar is as one sixth. It is also thickly covered with fur, which gives a large unslippery surface to be applied to the ice, a prime necessity to the beast when hunt- ing seal. As it htints seal, and even fish, the use of its neck, so much longer than th.at of any in the family, is apparent. It is capable of great rapidity of movement." " One was observed to dive from a block of ice and capture a passing salmon. The seal is CARNIVORES. 383 basking on the ice. The bear at a proijer distance quietly enters the water swimming towards its prey, keeping well below, and only occasionally allowing the nose to touch the surface sufficient to catch a breath. At last it rises just beneath, and in front of the seal, whose capture is certain, for if it fall into the water it will be caught, and movement landward is too slow to secure escape." " The pregnant females hibernate, the males and other females do not. She scrapes a hole in the snow, where buried she Fig. 180. — Thaiassarctos mariftniu.^, polar bear. brings forth her cubs, generally two." The maternal affection of the polar bear has long furnished the stock anecdotes on this subject. Indeed there are instances which are truly affecting. The mother will not desert her cubs, however great the jieril to herself, and should they be killed first her manifestation of grief is truly toucliing. The polar bear is the only aquatic member of its family. Practically it is confined to the Arctic zone. If it ever gets south of this region it is only as an unwilling passenger on some immense treacherous mass of ice. It is almost certain that they did come southward in this way oftener in the olden time, i* en cites the account of 384 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. Jacques Cartier's voyage to Newfoundland in 1534. "In his account of the ' Island of Birds,' situated off the coast of Newfoundland, it is stated, ' And albeit the sayd island he fourteen leagues from the maineland, notwithstanding beares come swimming thither to eat of the said birds, and our men found one there as great as any cow, and as white as any swan, who in their presence leapt into the sea, and upon Whitsun- munday (following our voyage to the land) we met her by the way, swhuming toward land as swiftly as we could saile. So soone as we saw her we pui'sued her with our boats, and by niaine strength tooke her, whose flesh was as good to be eaten as the flesh of a calf of two yeares old.' " Nine feet in length is accounted large even for a polar bear. Hence, but for its minuteness of statement, the following as to length and weight would seem incredible. At any rate it is quite a niatch for Jacques Cartier's specimen " as great as any cow." "A party of men from the Isabella, including a number of Eskimo and myself, were walking on the ice a short distance from the ship, when, rounding a hummock, we unexpectedly discovered, a short distance from us, a large bear quietly feeding. We would have returned to the ship without disturbing it, as we were armed with only one rifle and a few spears cari-ied by the natives, had not one of the several dogs that were with us announced their presence by a loud bark. The bear, as soon as it saw the intruders, began to advance slowly toward us, but was met by the dogs, who attacked the animal vigorously but with little effect. He shook them off, and after injuring three of them so badly that they had to be killed, he continued to advance. We discharged the rifle and then fled to the ship, where we armed ourselves and came ' out to look after the bear, which had disapjieared behind one of the numerous hum- mocks by which we were surrounded. We had searched for some time when as one of the Eskimo passed the corner of a hummock lie came face to face with the infuriated animal. He gave a fearful cry just as the brute struck him with one of his immense paws. The rest of us heard the cry and rajjidly surrounded the brute, which stood perfectly still over the body of the Eskimo. We fired sixteen shots, twelve of which entered his body, before he received his death wound. The native was insensible when we picked him up, and badly torn about the shoulders by the beast's claws, but was not seriously hurt. We took the body of the bear on a sledge to the ship ; it weighed fifteen hundred and seventy-five pounds, and was ten feet and one inch from nose to tail, and eight feet and four inches around the thickest ]iart of its body." A writer in "Blackwood's Magazine" narrates an incident of which he was an eye-witness, which sets the young of the polar bear in a very attractive light. " My first acquaintance with the white whale in the flesh was made on the ' snow-foot ' at the base of the cliffs below the Samoyede settlement at the head of Karmakula Harbor, having previously encountered by the hundred their mouldering skeletons scattered along the beach in various ])arts of the island, picked remarkably clean by the burgo- master or glaucus gull, that greedy scavenger of the arctic regions. On the stretch of snow-ice in question, there were ranged the bodies of half a dozen white whales, vary- ing from six to sixteen feet in length. Hearing a snarling sound beliind one of the carcasses, I went uji to discover the cause, and was surprised to see a young polar bear making off with a large jiiece of offal in his mouth, and smeared from head to foot with sfore, aruinbliu"' loudh' to himself as he shambled off at having; been disturbed at his meal. We afterward came upon this bear having his dessert in the Samoyede cooking- tent, surrounded by a group of admiring and envious Eskimo dogs, with whom he appeared to be a great favorite, on the whole. Having finished his food, and then CARNIVORES. 385 licked one of the dogs from head to foot — perhajjs by way of cleaning his tongue — he adjourned to the Samoyede living-tent, where lie speedily settled down among the ■children and furs, and went peacefully to sleep." The polar bear has been regarded as an absolute carnivore. The journal of the Eira sliows that they eat marine grass in large quantities. In confinement they like mixed diet, even cocoa-nuts, in connection with which the following interesting mani- festation of intelligence was communicated to " Nature " : — " In the Clifton zoological gardens there are two female polar bears, between two and a half and three years old, which came here quite young. A cocoa-nut was thrown into the tank ; it sunk a long way, and the bear waited quietly till, after some time, it rose a little out of her reach. She then made a current in the water with her paw, and thus brought it within reach. This habit has already lieen several times noticed in polar bears. She then took it on shore, and tried to break it by leaning her weight on it with one paw. Failing in this, she took the nut between her fore-paws, raised herself on her hind-legs to her full height, and threw the nut forward against the bars of the den, three or four feet off. She then leaned her weight on it, hoping she had cracked it, but failed again. She then repeated the process, this time successfully. The keeper told the writer she employed the same method to break the leg-bone of a horse. That this is the result of individual experience, and not of instinct, is clear from the fact that her companion has not learned the trick of opening them thus, nor could this one do it when she first ■came." We have now reached the third sub-group of the great group Arctoidea, namely the Arctoidea Musteliformia — the Weasel-bears. It would not be surprising if the reader should feel that the method we are following is somewhat arbitrary and un- natural, for we here find the otter, which needs a very great specialization of form for its food-procuring functions. Then, again, in the sub-family Mustelinoe, which will close this section of the weasel arctoids, we shall find the sub-plantigrade Gulo, and the weasel-like grison, quite plantigrade, and lastly the weasels and martens which, like the cat and the dog, are digitigrade. But Nature's mysteries are beneath the skin, not outside. Her plan is in the bony skeleton. Although our weasel-bears differ much among themselves, "they bear, nevertheless, certain important characters in common, such as the structure of the ear-dru7n bone, which, in essential respects, resembles tliat of the bears, as also do the organs of digestion." With more or less power of secretion we find, among the arctoids now to be considered, the possession of anal glands, reaching the highest develojiment, for offensive and defensive use in the polecat of the Old World, and pre-eminently in the skunk of the New. The family Mfstelid^ contains eight sub-families, which must be taken up in an ascending order. The Enhydringe contains the Sea Otter, Enhydris hitris. It is in some respects not much unlike a seal, esjjecially if its flipper-like hind-feet be considered. In the physical character of its teeth, as well as in the dental formula, Enhydris is peculiar in its family. " All the grinders are of a singularly massive, tubercular, almost bulbous character, with no trenchant edges, acute cusps, or even angular edges. This is in evident adaj)tation to the piscivorous i-egimeu of the animal." " The fore-feet are remarkably small, giving the limbs an appearance which suggests amputation at the wrist." VOL. V. — 25 386 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. A truthful account of the strange, vigihiut life of the sea-otter, and of the hardships and perils encountered by its hunters, wouhl sur2jass in novelty and interest the most attractive work of fiction. Saanach Island, islets, and reefs, in Alaska, fonn the great hunting-ground of the sea-otter. The island is small, with a coast-line circuit of about eighteen miles. The natives do not live upon the island, because the making of fires and the scattering of food-refuse alarms the otters, driving them off to sea ; so that it is only camped upon, and fires are never built unless the wind is from the southward, for no sea-otters are ever found to the nortli of the island. The sufferings to which the native hunters subject themselves every year on this island, going for many weeks without fires, even for cooking, with the thermometer down to zero, in a noitherly gale of wind, is better imagined than described. FKr. 181. — Enhijdrh tiUriti, sea otter. Says Elliott, " The adult sea-otter will measure from three and a half to four feet at most, from nose to tip of tail, which is short and stumpy. There is no se.xual dis- similarity in color or size, and both manifest the same intense shyness and aversion to man, coupled with the greatest solicitude for tlieir young, which they bring into exist- ence at all seasons of the year ; for the natives get young pu])S every month in the year. As the natives have never caught the motheihenomenon in the grou]), that capacity of secreting and discharging, for offensive and defensive purposes, a fetid substance. Any considera- tion of this peculiarity will be, we think, better understood now that we have reached those animals in which this singular capacity is the most largely developed, namely, the Mejihitinse. Upon the possession of these odoriferous glands, M. Chatin attempts a classification of the whole family. He says, " Including such different animals as the 390 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. otter, polecat, badger, skunk, marten, and ratol, it is indeed a heterogeneous family of the Carnivora. JMilne-Edwards was enabled to form three families out of the components of so miscellaneous an assemblage as that of the Mustelidaj. In the configuration of the limbs, as well as in their entirely peculiar habits, the otters would represent the Lutrida», the weasels and polecats the Mustelida3, while the Melidte would embrace the skunks, badgers, etc. "Now these three divisions correspond ^\li\l as many modifications of the perinaeal secretory apparatus; the two former, Lutridre and Mustelidre, offer, in a general waj', a single pair of glands ojiening on the border of the anus, one on each side, furnished with a receptacle for the product of secretion. " In the Mclidaa, the badgers on the one hand, and the skunks and the ratels on the other, form two quite distinct sections. In these latter genera are likewise found a single pair of anal glands, but these are quite different from those of the Mustelidse. The recejitacle has a remarkable capacity ; the follicular mass, instead of spreading over it, occupies but a small poi'tion of its surface, while the secretion, which is always plentiful, here acquires an unparalleled fetor. In the badgers, on the contrary, these anal glands are not the only secretory organs, there being in addition a particular subcaudal pouch surrounded by a racemose gland, which produces a peculiar liquid." The above sheds light on the physiology of the strange habit to be soon mentioned in some of these animals. But, as Coues well remarks, M. Chatin does not give due weight to other features of structure. Hence we may adopt for our course the words of Dr. Coues when he contends that the MustelidiB, as he gives it, is a homogeneous and natural assemblage of genera, etc. The MephitinoB is a small group possessing, as now known, three genera in an ascending oixler, SpUogale, 3Iephitis, and Co>iejxciiis. This last name is, in scien- tific nomenclature, a barbarism, derived from the local Mexic'an name, Conepatl. The anatomical details of difference would weary the ordinary reader. Scarcely more than mention can be made in a general way of the pelage of the three genera. It may be said that the giound color of all is black, or blackish, and that in all the genera, though sometimes it is nearly obsolete, is a narrow, white stripe in the middle of the face, reaching to the nape, and there widening into an area more or less ]n-o- nounced. Sjnloffale 2}i; and the American Taxidoa, long time confounded with J/efes." The Arctonyx collaris, ranging from Nepal to Aracan, is one of the Asiatic badgers. Its Hindostanee name is Balloo-Soor, the Sand-Hog. Though somewhat like the typical badger of Europe, it stands much higher on its legs, and has a rather inor- dinately long snout. In fact, it looks more like a bear. The claws are well fitted for burrowing, and the toes are united through their whole length. The tail is very short. Its food is both animal and vegetable, and the animal is said to be very fierce. The prevailing color of the pelage is yellowish white. ^;':--;'' - r'l ■ // w^' -■ r^' I- ''VI p .*' t- "^ 1 'V ? t,^sU''- _ ■- ■ ^. ' ' ^ ">':,'.,<■ ^•l,!''/"^' Fig. IS-. — Mijdaus Tneliceps, teledu, stiiikiug badger. The Teledu, Mydaus meliceps., the Stinking Badger, is confined to Sumatra and Java. " It is only found on mountains with an elevation of over seven thousand feet. Hence for these cold altitudes its fur is warm, being long, and closely set, and silky. The prevailing color is a yellowish white. It is a little more than a foot long, has a pig-like head, a stout body, very short legs, and a stumpy tail not more than an inch long. Tlie feet are plantigrade." The claws of the fore-feet are nearly twice as long as those of the hind, and being curved, and the legs strong, the fossorial ability of the animal is great. It has the power of ejecting a highly fetid liquid, like the skunk. It burrows by day, and in the night roots and scratches for worms and insect larva?. The Common Badger, Meles mdghernalia of a trapper's tent had vanished, and the tracks left by the beast showed who had been the thief. The family set to work, and by carefully following up all his paths, recovered nearly all the lost property." " They bring forth in burrows under ground, probably old bear wastes, and have four or five young at a birth. They reproduce late in June, and early in July. The pairing season is in March. The female is ferocious in defence of her young. Indians have been heard to say that they would sooner encounter a she-bear with her cubs than a Carcajou under the same circumstances. The Onondagas call Gulo Gwing-gwah-gay, which means 'a tough fellow,' a 'bad character.' In October, when the rivers set fast, the wolverines reappear in families, the young still following their dam, though Flu. 184. — GaLcra barbara, tuyra. now not much her inferior in size. They are full grown when about a year old. In early infancy the cubs are said to be of a pale cream color." Seeing a man in the distance, as if to make assurance doubly sure, the wily carcajou has been seen to sit on its haunches, and shading the eyes with one paw, to take deliberate observation in the way adopted by men. As we have already said, S]3arrman affirms a similar human accomplishment of the bee-hunting ratel. The Grison, Galictis inttata, was formei-ly described as the South American Glutton, Gulo vittatus. It is a very different animal. The wolverine is semi-plantigrade, the grison is fully plantigrade. It is a weasel-like form, peculiar to South America. Its fur, unlike the martens and weasels, is light al)ove and dark below, the colors being gray and dark brown. It is about two feet in length, besides the tail, which is about one foot long. " It is found in plantations, and in the neighborhood of buildings, and makes its abode in hollow trees, clefts in rocks, and holes in the earth." The grison's immediate cousin is the Taj'ra, Galera barhara, iomid from Brazil and British Guiana to Paraguay. The entire length, including the tail, is about three feet, 398 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS. the latter being nearly the half of the whole length. With a yellowish spot below, the upper part of the body is a blackish brown, but lighter on the head and neck. It preys upon small mammals and birds in the forests, hunting in the morning. Say the Parkers, " This animal is one of the ugliest in the whole carnivorous order. It is not unlike the marten in shape, but with a low, villainous, and almost debauched expression of face." The tayra, like its cousin the grison, is a plantigrade. We have now done with the plantigrades, and are come to those animals of the Mnstelina? which are digitigrade, or toe-steppers. It contains quite a number of species, more than we have room to mention, and formerly all were included under two genera, Mvstela, the martens, and Putorius, the weasels. But while Mustela holds its own, Putorius has been badly cut up into sub-genera, such as Lutreola, the little otters, namely-, the minks, so-called from a fancied resemblance, and Gale, the weasels, etc. For the sake of avoiding confusion, we shall not discard the older genus Putorius, but by way of compromise may write the sub-genus between it and the specific name. The Minks, Lutreola, have thirty-four teeth, four less than the martens. They are lai-ger than a weasel, stouter, tail bushier. The half-webbing of the toes, short ears, and the close-set, bristly, glistening pelage, make them approach the otter in its adaptation to an aquatic mode of life. They are next only to the skunk in the fetid pungency of the odor they emit when caught in a trap, or in any way enraged. In the American Mink, Putorius {LtUreola) vison, the color ranges from a light, dull, yellowish-brown to a rich blackish-brown. The deeper the black the moi'e highly is the fur prized. There is a very dark-colored mink which is sometimes called P. nigrescens, the Black Mink. It is almost certain that this and P. vison are but one species. They range in length from fifteen to twenty inches, the tail being about half as long. The following vigorous passage by Coues photographs the temper of the animal: — "Its tenacity of life is remarkable. It lives for many hours — in cases I have known, for more than a day and a night — under the pressure of a heavy log sufficient to hold it like a vice, and when the middle of the body was pressed perfectly flat the animal showed good fight on our approach. When caught in a trap it gnaws and lacerates itself in a manner jiainful to witness, even breaking its teeth against the iron. One who has not taken a mink in a steel-trap can scarcely form an idea of the terrible expression the animal's face assumes as the captor approaches. It has always struck me as the most nearly diabolical of anything in animal physiognomy. A sullen stare from the crouched, motionless form gives way to a new look of surprise and fear, accompanied with the most violent contortions of the body, with renewed champing of the iron, till breathless, with heaving flanks and open mouth dribbling saliva, the animal settles again, and watches with a look of concentrated hatred, mingled with impotent rage and frightful desjiair. The countenance of the mink, its broad, low head, short ears, small eyes, piggish snout, and formidable teeth, is always ex]3ressive of the lower and more bi-utal passions, all of which are intensified at such times. As may well be supposed, the creature must not be incautiously dealt with when in such a frame of mind." The aquatic habits of the mink make it a good fisher, and in fact modify its diet. It is probably our only species which feeds habitually upon reptiles, fish, mollusks, and crustaceans, — especially upon frogs, fresh- water bivalves, crayfish, and the like. It has been known to attack and kill the muskrat, probably for food. The animal can be tamed and made a pet. Such, however, would not be without danger. Cat- CARNIVORES. 399 like, it loves to be stroked and foiuUed, but its temper is too quick and capricious. The American mink ruts in February, and litters in April in the hollow of a log, or its accustomed burrow ; generally the litter numbers five or six. In domestication it has been known to reach ten. Gestation lasts about six weeks, and they litter but once a year. " The young are born Ijlind, their ejes not opening for five weeks. When just born, they are light-colored, hairless, and about the size and shape