Bill short, straight, conical, and depressed; the ridge rounded;
mandibles of equal length, sharp, and not notched; nostrils at the sides
of the base, naked and partly closed by a membrane; tongue long,
worm-shaped, and armed at the point with a horny substance; feet with
two toes before, and two behind, the fore ones joined at their base;
tail with ten soft and flexible feathers; wings of middle length, the
first quill shorter than the second, which is the longest in the
wing.—_Montagu._
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ZINC, _s._ A semi-metal of a brilliant white colour, approaching to
blue.
ZOOLOGY, _s._ A treatise concerning living creatures.
_Zoological Description of the Horse._—The horse belongs to the
_division vertebrated_, because he has a cranium or skull, and a spine
or range of vertebræ proceeding from it.
The vertebrated animals, however, are very numerous. They include man,
quadrupeds of all kinds, birds, fishes, and many reptiles. We look out
then for some subdivision, and a very simple line of distinction is soon
presented. Some of these vertebrated animals have _mammæ_, or teats,
with which the females suckle their young. The human female has two, the
mare two, the cow four, the bitch ten or twelve, and the sow more than
twelve.
This _class_ of vertebrated animals, having mammæ or teats, is called
_mammalia_, and the horse belongs to the division _vertebrata_, and the
class _mammalia_.
The class mammalia is still exceedingly large, and we must again
subdivide it. It is stated (Library of Entertaining Knowledge, vol. i.
p. 13) that “this class of quadrupeds, or mammiferous quadrupeds, admits
of a division into two _Tribes_.
“1. Those whose extremities are divided into fingers or toes,
scientifically called _unguiculata_, from the Latin word for _nail_; and
2, Those whose extremities are hoofed, scientifically called _ungulata_,
from the Latin word for _hoof_.
“The extremities of the first are armed with claws or nails, which
enable them to grasp, to climb, or to burrow. The extremities of the
second tribe are employed merely to support and move the body.”
The extremities of the horse are covered with a hoof, by which the body
is supported, and with which he cannot grasp any thing, and therefore he
belongs to the tribe ungulata, or hoofed.
But there is a great variety of hoofed animals. The elephant, the
rhinoceros, the hippopotamus, the swine, the horse, the sheep, the deer,
and many others, are ungulated or hoofed; they admit, however, of an
easy division. Some of them masticate, or chew their food, and it is
immediately received into the stomach and digested; but in others, the
food, previous to digestion, undergoes a very singular process. It is
returned to the mouth to be re-masticated, or chewed again. These are
called ruminantia, or ruminants, from the food being returned, from one
of the stomachs (for they have four) called the rumen or paunch, to be
chewed again.
The ungulata that do not ruminate are somewhat improperly called
pachydermata, from the thickness of their skins. The horse does not
ruminate, and therefore belongs to the order pachydermata.
The pachydermata who have only one toe, belong to the family
solipeda—single-footed. Therefore the horse ranks under the division
vertebrata; the class mammalia—the tribe ungulata—the order
pachydermata—and the family solipeda.—_The Horse._
ZOOTOMIST, _s._ A dissector of the bodies of beasts.
ZOOTOMY, _s._ Dissection of the bodies of beasts.
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