A Natural History for Young People: Our Animal Friends in Their Native Homes / including mammals, birds and fishes

Chapter 119: THE HORNED RUMINANTS.

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About This Book

Aimed at young readers, this natural-history guide presents mammals, birds, and fishes organized by families and explained in clear, nontechnical language. It surveys primates, carnivores (including bears, cats, and dogs), seals, bats, insectivores, toothless and gnawing mammals, marsupials, pachyderms, ruminants, and whales, alongside many bird groups such as owls and birds of prey. Habits, habitats, anatomy, and relationships among species are described, with necessary scientific terms defined in accessible prose. More than a hundred illustrations and colored plates accompany the text to clarify forms, behavior, and comparative classification.

THE HORNED RUMINANTS.

The family of Common Ruminants form a natural group comprehending the greatest number of Ruminants. The feature which distinguishes the animals composing it, not only from the Camel family, but also from all the other Ruminants, is the existence of two horns on the forehead of the male, and sometimes on the female.

The structure of these horns presents various differences, and has caused the division of this large and important family into three tribes, namely, Ruminants with hairy and permanent horns, hollow-horned Ruminants and Ruminants which shed their horns.