Mr. J. E. Harting on Forest Animals. 75
succession of a different fauna ; or I might tell you some-
thing of those submerged forests the remains of which,
upon some parts of our coast, are from time to time dis-
closed as the tide recedes, bringing to light the horns and
skulls of animals—as the red-deer and roe-deer—which,
though formerly overrunning a great part of our island,
have (except in one or two localities) long been banished
from the southern and midland portions of it.
But my object on this occasion is to deal not with
the past, but with the present; to bring to your notice
some of the characteristic creatures which may be seen in
an English forest, not all in one day perhaps, but from
time to time in the course of one's excursions. I propose
to tell you something of their appearance and habits, and
to answer, if I may, some of the various questions which I
am accustomed to hear asked concerning some of the less
common or little-observed animals.
On proceeding to take a survey of the denizens of a
forest, the larger animals, from their size, naturally
attract our attention, and we may therefore deal with them
first. As it will be necessary, for the sake of clearness, to
take them in some kind of order, let me pause for a
moment to explain the meaning of the names which have
been bestowed on the various groups into which it is con-
venient to divide them.
We have first the Ruminants—animals which ruminate,
or chew the cud. They are mostly horned, although there
are a few, in other countries, which are not. They are
characterized by the absence of incisors, or cutting teeth,
m the upper jaw. Instead of these, they have merely a
callous pad, against which the cutting teeth in the lower
jaw press, and so cut up the food in the same way as meat
is cut up by means of a chopper and block.
In order to go through the process of ruminating, they
possess a specially formed stomach, or rather a series of
stomachs, through which the food passes in turn before it
becomes finally digested. It would be easy to explain to
you by means of a diagram the exact process which is gone
through by a ruminating animal every time it chews the
C