The Camel, the Camelopard, the Musk-deer and the Deer are all more or
less nearly related. They constitute a branch of the great family of
Ruminants, and all chew the cud. With the Camel are associated the
Bactrian or two-humped Camel, the Alpaca, the Llama and the Vicuna.
With the Giraffe we have the Okapi, and several extinct animals. The
Musk-deer stands almost alone. Of Deer there are a great many species.
It is easy enough to distinguish these various animals the one from the
other when seen living in a Zoological Garden or stuffed in a museum.
Indeed, at first sight, there might seem to be no great similarity
between a Camel, a Giraffe, and a Fallow-deer. To the student of
natural history, however, it becomes of great interest to observe the
essential peculiarities of each. These may be grouped as those which
prove relationship and those which show differences. We will leave
aside the very important peculiarities in the stomach, because but few
of our readers will have opportunities for examining them, and will
confine our attention to the feet, horns, skull and teeth. All have two
hoofs or more, and the Camel group have behind their hoofs a pad which
covers the sole. None of them have hollow horns, and in none are their
weapons of offence--horns, teeth, tusks, &c.--very effective. In all
when adult the cutting teeth (incisors) in the upper jaw are absent,
and in most the canines are either absent or much modified.
The Camel tribe differ from Giraffes in possessing a pad, and in
having, when young, incisor teeth in the upper jaw, and fewer lower
incisors by two. They have also strong canines in both jaws, no trace
of horns, and nothing to be called tusks.
The Giraffes have two, three, or even five abortive horns of very
peculiar development. They have very long necks, no pads, no tusks.
The canine teeth in the lower jaw, which look like incisors, are much
specialised in being cleft or notched.
The little Musk-deer has no sort of horn; but his upper canine teeth
are large and form tusks.
The true Deer have antlers (in the male), which they shed every year.
The males, and sometimes the females, have canine teeth in the upper
jaw. The antlers are dermal bones, that is, are formed in the skin, and
do not grow from the skull. They have two rudimentary digits above the
hoofs.
The whole of this group, which we may call the Camel and Deer family,
are almost wholly defenceless, the Giraffe the most so of all, and,
excepting those which are useful in domestication, are threatened with
extinction. The Camels and the Llamas, although separated as distantly
as Peru and Arabia, have in common the very peculiar habit of snorting
most offensively at those who oppress or annoy them.
This large family of Camels and Deer stands between a small one which
comprises Pigs, and a very large one, to which Cattle, Sheep, Goats and
Antelopes are assigned. Pigs are not ruminants, and have incisor teeth
in the upper jaws. Cattle, sheep, &c., like camels and deer, ruminate,
and have no cutting teeth in the upper jaw. Their distinctive features
are hollow horns (which are present in both sexes), and the invariable
absence of tusks.
The canine teeth in all members of the Giraffe group are peculiar,
in that they show a cleft in the free edge which divides them into
two lobes. These teeth look as if they belonged to the incisors, but
various facts prove them to be really the canines. Those of the extinct
Sivatherium, and those of the recently discovered Okapi, have similar
peculiarities, and thus prove their relationship.
It is curious that our natural history authorities are not yet agreed
as to whether the Giraffe has his fore limbs longer than the hind ones
or not. Claus and Sedgwick say, “hind legs much shorter, and therefore
the back slopes backwards.” Those who have measured the bones, however,
say that there is no difference, and that the slope depends entirely
upon the setting of the shoulder blade.
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