Guide to the galleries of mammals in the Department of Zoology of the British Museum.

  • British Museum (Natural History). Department of Zoology.
Date:
1914
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Guide to the galleries of mammals in the Department of Zoology of the British Museum. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    domesticated, and ranging from North Africa, through Arabia, Persia, and Central Asia, to India. The two-humped C. bactrianus (1326) exists in a wild state in the deserts of Central Asia. The second genus of the Tylopoda is Lama, containing two [Case 65.] species—the Guanaco, L. Imanacus (1328), which is the wild form of the domesticated Llama and Alpaca, and the much smaller Vicuna, L. vicugna (1327). They are natives of the Andes and some of the adjoining plains of South America, the domesticated breeds being used as beasts of burden in the same [Cases 66 & 68.] way as the Camels. The Tragulina, or Chevrotains (case 64*), are a group of [Case64*] small deer-like animals of about the size of rabbits. Their feet are more like those of pigs, and their stomachs have three, instead of four divisions. There are two genera in the group, namely, Tragulus (1331), with five or six beautiful little species, ranging from India to Borneo ; and Doi^catlierium, with but one living representative, the Water-Chevrotain, ]). aquaticum (1334), of Equatorial Africa. In case 68 are placed a few remains of the extinct families Anthracotlieriidce and Oreodontidce, groups which serve in some degree to connect the preceding sections of Artiodactyla with the Suina, especially as regards their teeth. In the modern Suina the teeth of the cheek-series never show the semicylin- (Irical columns on their grinding-surfaces characteristic of those of the Pecora, Tylopoda, and Tragulina. Their feet also are of a less specialized type, four toes are present, and there are never cannon-bones in both limbs. The group now includes three families IlippopotamuLv, Siiida’, and J?icotjlida\ Of the Hippopotamida’, which were once extremely numerous in this country, in Southern Europe, and India, only two species survive, viz. the common Hippopotamus ampJiihius (1340), too well known to require further notice, of which a stuffed specimen is exhibited in case 66* ; and the much smaller Liberian Hip)popotamus {Choeropsis) liheriensis (1341), which does not exceed a Wild Boar in size, and occurs only in a few localities in West Africa. The Pigs, or Suidce (cases 67 and 68), are distinguished by their long snouts, flattened in front, small eyes, four-toed feet, [Cases 67 & 68.] [ Cases 66 & 68.]
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