THE WORLD'S HERDS AND FLOCKS
The great tribe of animals called Ungulata ("hoofed") or Herbivora
(eaters of herbage--herbivores), combines two types of structure into
which they have diverged since their origin at the dawn of the Tertiary
era, namely:
I. Odd-toed, or solid-hoofed, ungulates (Perissodactyla), typified by
horses; and
II. Even-toed, or split-hoofed, ungulates (Artiodactyla), typified by
the cattle.
They exist in every part of the habitable globe except Australasia,
have furnished sustenance to the larger Carnivora, and have supplied
the need of man for assistance in his labor, and with materials for
food, shelter, and clothing. Without them modern civilization would
have been impossible.
Both divisions have lost the plantigrade (flat-soled) walk of their
early ancestors, and now step on the tips of their toes. This has been
gradually gained as an adaptation to the increase of dry land and the
formation of grassy plains, which we know went on steadily, especially
through the last third of the Tertiary era. The short, massive legs
and spreading, five-toed feet, useful in sustaining an animal's weight
in marshes, were slowly changed to longer, more slender limbs and a
digitigrade walk as greater speed and nimbleness were required in
making their way over wide pastures to and from watering places or in
escaping the beasts of prey, which were themselves becoming swifter
and more active in jumping by a coordinate evolution of abilities.
But before proceeding to the typical hoofed tribes, mention must be
made of the elephants, which belong in this order. Elephants appear to
stand apart from all other mammals, and from the earliest times have
attracted attention by their huge bulk and strength, and by traditions
of their intelligent performances. They seem a necessary part of
our ideas of Oriental life and grandeur, and a circus without trick
elephants would be a poor show in the eyes of the American youngster.
[Illustration: THE SOUTHERN MAMMOTH
Drawn by Christman. (American Museum of Natural History)]
The naturalist classifies them (order Proboscidea) in this place
because they are plainly, although remotely, related in structure to
the solid-hoofed browsers; but only recently has he been able to trace
their ancestry back to a small, tapirlike forefather of Miocene days,
with no trunk and no tusks. The trunk, of course, is the animal's
lengthened nose, become an organ useful for many purposes other than
breathing; and the tusks are overgrown upper incisor teeth. The
elephants of the present time are few compared with those of warmer
past ages, when many species, as well as various cousins, such as
long-haired mammoths and towering mastodons, wandered over Europe,
Asia, and our own country. Now only two kinds remain: one in Africa,
the other Asiatic. They differ in many ways, most noticeably in the
size of the ears, which in the African elephant are very much larger
than those of the Asiatic species. Both are forest animals, feeding
on leaves and twigs. African elephants were formerly to be found all
over the wooded parts of that continent, traveling about in herds that
sometimes numbered a hundred or more individuals; and were varied in
appearance, some being taller than any Oriental one, while others (in
the Congo region) are so small as to be called dwarfs. The natives have
never captured and made use of them, and few have been tamed by anyone
within recent years, but in the time of the Carthaginians and Romans
they were held captive, ridden, and employed in war, and in sports of
the arena. They have been greatly reduced in numbers by ivory hunters,
and would be nearly or quite extinct now had they not been protected in
recent years by wise laws.
The Asiatic, or "Indian" elephant, which is confined to India,
Ceylon, Burma, and the Malay countries, still roams the jungles as a
wild animal, but every herd is known to and protected by the local
governments, and from time to time these are rounded up, and young ones
are captured and trained to man's service. Only in this way can the
domestic supply be maintained, since these elephants rarely produce
young when in captivity. They are utilized as riding and burden-bearing
beasts, for hauling heavy loads, especially in the army service, and in
handling large timber and other industrial operations. Some ivory is
obtained from this species, but the tusks are far smaller than those
of the African elephants, and the females bear none at all, while both
sexes are armed in Africa, where an old "bull's" tusks have been known
to exceed a weight of 300 pounds each.
[Illustration: PREHISTORIC STRAIGHT-TUSKED ELEPHANT
Drawn by Christman. (American Museum of Natural History)]
Although there is no reason to suppose the African elephant is less
intelligent by nature than the Oriental one, nearly all the evidence of
thoughtfulness in these animals comes from Indian examples--a species
that has been studied and educated for hundreds of years. That they may
be taught to do almost anything of which their bodies are capable is
plain; but undoubtedly they comprehend very largely the purposes of the
man directing them, and use "brains" in assisting him to carry them
out. They have retentive memories, appreciate kindness, and constantly
show skill and discretion in accomplishing what they are asked to do.
In regard to no other sort of animal has so much been written as of
elephants; and the sum of the testimony is that they are not only very
teachable and faithful in performing their tasks, when not disabled by
fear, but often use surprisingly good judgment in their work.
Distantly related to the elephants, yet so remote in relationship
to anything else as to be set apart in an order (Hyracoidea) by
themselves, and with no visible geological ancestry, are the queer
little "conies" of the Scriptures, called rock rabbits, and dassies
in South Africa. They have a singular resemblance to rabbits, apart
from their little round ears, and are more like enlarged copies of
our western pikas, but their anatomy and teeth show they are far from
being rodents; and they are classified here mainly by reason of their
rhinoceroslike teeth, and the hooflets on their toes, so that they
form a quaint intermediary between the elephants and the solid-hoofed
section of the ungulates; they are, indeed, relics of an exceedingly
primitive and ancestral type of ungulates.
[Illustration: WART HOG, ONE OF THE UGLIEST ANIMALS TO SEE
Photo, Elwin R. Sanborn, N. Y. Zoological Society]
[Illustration: THE MALAY TAPIR, RELATED TO THE PIG AND THE RHINOCEROS
Photo, Elwin R. Sanborn, N. Y. Zoological Society]
RHINOCEROSES, TAPIRS AND HORSES
Included by their general anatomy among the perissodactyls, although
they have several toes on each foot, all reaching the ground, and, like
those of elephants, connected by webs and clothed with thick, hooflike
nails, are the rhinoceroses and tapirs. The rhinoceroses are relics
of a long and interesting geological history. Two belong to Africa,
one of which, the common "black," browsing rhinoceros, is still
abundant south of the equator in all the more open and less occupied
parts, of the continent; while the other, the larger, square-lipped,
grass-eating, or "white" rhinoceros, has become very rare save in
certain remote and upland plains. Both have thick, hairless skins of a
pale lead-gray, which lie smoothly over the whole body, and both have,
on the nose, two horns, composed of matted, whalebonelike hairs, not
a part of the skeleton but springing from the skin. The front horn is
always much the longer, in some cases reaching a length of more than
fifty inches. Asia has three species of rhinoceros, all of which differ
from the African in having functional incisor teeth, and in their
hides. The best known is the "Indian" rhinoceros, now confined to the
hot jungles of the extreme northeast of India. It has only one horn,
and its dark hide is thrown into heavy folds looking like artificial
armor. It became known to Europe early in the sixteenth century, and
became the subject for some of the most curious speculations and
superstitions of that credulous age. The "Sondaic" or hairy rhinoceros
still is to be found in jungles from Bengal around to the end of
the Malayan Peninsula. It is smaller than the Indian one, and its
folded and tesselated hide supports a coat of short hair; its horns
are only two little protuberances on its nose. Finally Sumatra and
Borneo have a rhinoceros whose coat is still more hairy, and among
whose peculiarities is the possession of two formidable horns. These
creatures are perhaps the best examples remaining of what Merck's
rhinoceros (fossil) and other big quadrupeds of the Pleistocene era
looked like.
[Illustration: MARKHOR, AN ASIATIC WILD GOAT]
[Illustration: MOUNTAIN SHEEP OR BIGHORN OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS
Photos, Elwin R. Sanborn, N. Y. Zoological Society]
[Illustration: BROAD-NOSED RHINOCEROS
Merck's Rhinoceros--prehistoric. Drawn by Christman. (American Museum
of Natural History)]
The tapirs are even more widely separated in habitat than the
rhinoceroses, for four species dwell in the New World between Guatemala
and southern Brazil and Guiana, while the fifth belongs to Malaysia.
They are forest animals, and mainly browsers, the long, almost
trunklike nose and lips enabling them to seize and tear off leaves and
twigs easily. They choose low districts, as a rule, and rush into the
safety of water when in danger from the jaguar or other beasts. They
are shaped somewhat like a very fat pony, but with a big, pointed head,
and are clothed with short hair of plain dark tints, but the young are
spotted at first. They are timid, secretive and nocturnal in their
habits. Their flesh is excellent meat.
This brings us to the horses, whose geological history is one of the
romances of natural history, as it is traced from the little five-toed
eohippus of the Eocene up to the herds that roamed our western
prairies, and disappeared so completely, and so unaccountably, in the
era just preceding the present. Our domestic horses, consequently,
are all of Old World origin. As far back as man can be traced in his
supposed birthplace in central Asia herds of small horses fed upon
those high plains; and about fifty years ago bands of ponies were
discovered ranging the dreary deserts of Dzungaria, or northwestern
Chinese Turkestan, and specimens are now living and breeding in the
Zoölogical Park in New York and in European collections. This truly
wild horse stands about ten hands high, and is covered with thick hair
of a dull brown color, unstriped.
Such horses were undoubtedly hunted and killed as food by Paleolithic
men; and when, many, many thousands of years ago, they had in some
degree domesticated them, and began to migrate southward and westward,
they took these horses with them. Those people that gradually occupied
Persia, Mesopotamia, and the plains of Arabia and North Africa,
developed them into riding animals that became perfected in what we
know as the Arabian horse. Those tribes that migrated across Russia
and along to the northern shore of the Mediterranean, found in Europe
a similar, but more robust horse, now designated the "forest" horse,
which the savages regarded as game. The two interbred in the course
of time; but the southern breeds have remained smaller, lighter, and
more agile, while the northern or forest stock has been the foundation
of the heavy draft horses of northern Europe. After the Crusades Arab
blood was introduced to effect a still further refinement of the horses
of southern Europe, and it was from this Arab-improved stock, prevalent
in Spain, that the horses sent to the Spanish colonies in the Americas
were derived. Our plains, and the pampas of South America, soon became
populated with these horses run wild--"mustangs," showing even yet
traces of their aristocratic lineage.
So near to the horses that they belong to the same genus (Equus) are
the zebras, which differ mainly in their brighter coloring, less bushy
tail, "roached" manes, and lack of those callosities called "chestnuts"
on the hind legs. The zebras are exclusively African, and include two
types, a southern and a northern. The true zebra, now extinct, except
where kept and bred in captivity, belonged to the mountains near the
Cape of Good Hope, was only about twelve hands high, and had black
stripes on a white ground.
In the more open parts of Africa, north to Lake Rudolph, roamed
Burchell's variety of this zebra, the one now commonly seen in
menageries, in which the coat is creamy or golden yellow, and the black
stripes are far broader. Its northern variety, Grevy's zebra, has the
black stripes narrower, but so much more numerous that the white shows
as mere lines between them. To these must be added an extinct species,
killed off many years ago by Boer farmers and other sportsmen, which
was known as the "quaha" (quagga) from its barking neigh; it was a dark
brown, with stripings only on the head and neck.
The zebras seem incapable of becoming useful in harness or under the
saddle, but their very near relatives, the asses--in spite of the sober
gray of their dress, and their ungainly ears--have given us the patient
and enduring donkey, which has been a servant of mankind, at least in
Egypt, ever since the date of the earliest monuments; and wild asses
still flourish on the deserts of Africa from Algiers to Somaliland.
Another somewhat larger and more variable species roams the upland
plains of Persia and northern India, while a variety, the "kiang,"
lives on the arctic tableland of Tibet, and is as untamable a creature
as can be imagined.
[Illustration: BURCHELL'S ZEBRA OF NORTHERN CENTRAL AFRICA]
HIPPOS, PIGS AND CAMELS
With the hippopotamus we begin the long list of artiodactyls, or
cloven-footed animals, in which the weight of the body rests equally
on the two central digits (third and fourth) which are alike in
development, while the second and fifth digits, when present, do
little or no work, except in the hippopotamus, whose outside toes are
as long as the central ones, because needed by an animal treading
on muddy soil, and accustomed to swimming. Although this huge marsh
denizen is now confined to Africa, it ranged into southern Europe and
eastward to India within quite recent times, but was destroyed by the
human settlement of these countries; and civilization will in due
time exterminate it from the Congo and Nile basins where it now is so
numerous, and so incompatible with commerce and industry.
The swine are the first artiodactyls to show the typical cloven feet,
and in them the two hind toes reach almost to the ground, so as to
help the footing in the soft ground that they frequent. The foremost
member of the family (Suidæ) is the wild boar of the Old World, known
from the North Sea to the Bay of Bengal; and it is hard to realize that
the fat hogs of our stockyards are modifications of this bristling
forest boar with his muscular form, swift gait, and terrible tusks. Far
more ugly in appearance, however, is the wart hog of Africa and the
hairless "babiroussa" of Celebes, whose upcurved tusks far outmeasure
those of the Indian boar. America has a family of native swine named
peccaries--small, thin-legged, grizzled-black pigs, with very thick,
bristly necks and large, angular heads. They have wicked little eyes,
razor-sharp tusks in both jaws, and no visible tails, and the young
are not striped as in the typical Suidæ. These pigs go in companies,
wandering mainly at night in search of food, and taking almost anything
edible. They are irascible, attack with fierce energy in concert, and
are formidable foes to anything afoot, driving even the jaguar up a
tree when the band turns on him. One kind of peccary is common in
southwestern Texas, and its roving bands do much damage by night to
crops and gardens; it is called a "javelin."
[Illustration: PREHISTORIC HIPPOPOTAMUS
Drawn by Christman. (American Museum of Natural History)]
The swine occupy a somewhat intermediate place between the solid-hoofed
and the split-hoofed sections of the Herbivora; and the stomach is
simple except in the peccaries, where it takes a complicated form that
approaches that of the ruminants. This simplicity, with the correlated
fact that swine do not chew the cud, enabled the leaders of the ancient
Hebrews to set pigs apart, as unclean, by a more general definition
than a mere name could give, thus leaving no way of escape for those
who might be inclined to dodge the prohibition by quibbling. All other
Herbivora are ruminants, that is, chewers of the "cud"--those that
gather and swallow their food in haste, and then at leisure recover it
and thoroughly rechew it in small quantities (cuds).
This strange operation, like the carrying away of food by pocket mice,
monkeys, etc., enabled these comparatively defenseless animals to
gather nutriment in a short time and then retreat to a safe place to
prepare it for digestion. Associated with this practice is a large,
complicated stomach, normally consisting of four chambers, into the
first and largest of which the hastily swallowed forage is first
received. Then, when swallowed a second time, it passes on into the
second or true stomach, where real digestion begins.
[Illustration: THE KUDU, OR STRIPED ANTELOPE OF AFRICA; AT THE RIGHT,
HEAD OF THE GREATER SABLE ANTELOPE
Photos, Elwin R. Sanborn, N. Y. Zoological Society]
[Illustration: HEAD OF AN ALASKAN MOOSE
Photo, American Museum of Natural History]
[Illustration: AXIS, OR SPOTTED DEER OF THE EAST INDIES
Photo, Elwin R. Sanborn, N. Y. Zoological Society]
[Illustration: AMERICAN DEER WITH HORNS IN "VELVET" STAGE
Photo, Elwin R. Sanborn, N. Y. Zoological Society]