An Alphabet of Quadrupeds: Comprising descriptions of their appearance and habitsAnonymous
General
An Alphabet of Quadrupeds: Comprising descriptions of their appearance and habits
Anonymous
Alphabet books; Animals -- Pictorial works -- Juvenile literature
The Koodoo combines many of the characteristics of the sheep, ox, and
antelope. He is a large and beautiful animal, a native of the
woodlands of Caffraria, the male standing four feet high, and from the
insertion of the tail to the muzzle measuring about eight. The horns
rise perpendicularly in large spiral whorls, three feet nine inches in
length; a bristling of black hairs runs along the ridge of the neck,
and a line of the same color hangs from the dewlap: the general color
is brown, fading into grey, with a dorsal stripe of white, and
stripes of the same color behind the shoulders and across the back.
They are fleet but can not run long.
More nearly allied to the deer, from which they are distinguished by
their horns being permanent and without antlers, but marked with
circular elevated rings, which increase, in size with their growth and
years, one or two species alone exhibit a short ramification.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: MOUFFLON.]
THE MOUFFLON.
This is a sort of sheep living wild on the mountains of Corsica and
Sardinia; a similar species is also scattered over European Turkey and
some of the islands of the Archipelago. They are about the ordinary
size of sheep, and breed with the domestic races. The head is long,
with the muzzle compressed, the nose somewhat raised, and the forehead
swollen; the horns of the male (the female being without) are large,
long, and triangular, bending backward like a half circle, attenuated
from the base to the tip, which is obtuse; the body is large and
muscular, the tail short, and bare on the inside; the legs are pretty
long, and the hoofs short.
They wander in flocks of about a hundred, led by some old and
courageous male. Their habits are like those of our own sheep, docile
and gentle, though sometimes an amorous or a churlish old ram will
butt down a child, a woman, or a man, who may happen to stand in his
road, when the fit is upon him.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: RED DEER.]
THE RED DEER.
The European Stag, or Red Deer, is a fine looking animal, the tallest
of the deer kind. The pride of the north, he delights in the highest
mountains and the thickest forests, and is famed for long life, though
the natural term of his existence be often exaggerated, and which,
when exposed to human observation, he has never yet been accurately
known to reach. He comes to full growth at five years, when his horns
send out as many antlers, and he is called a hart, and the female a
hind.
Every year the male sheds his horns, and conscious of his temporary
weakness, hides himself till his new ones are hardened. His color, as
his name imports, is a bright reddish-brown, of a darker shade near
the belly, which is white. When fatigued in the chase, he takes the
water if near, and will cross with ease considerable and rapid
streams; when wounded or taken, he sheds tears like a child; but
though timid, when at bay he sometimes takes ample vengeance upon the
hounds before he is subdued.
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