rom above.]

The questions that arise are: Where did the rat-goat come from? How
did this utterly peculiar change in a Ruminant's teeth come about?
With regard to the second question, it is a matter of importance that
although we have hitherto not discovered any Ruminants with this
modification of the teeth, still less any cavicorn or sheath-horned
Ruminant so altered, yet it is by no means rare amongst herbivorous
mammals to find such rat-like teeth making their appearance, whilst
the smaller side-teeth of the incisor group or front teeth disappear.
The Australian kangaroos and wombats are a case in point--so is the
lemur-like aye-aye of Madagascar (an insect eater). So is the Hyrax or
"damian" of the Cape, and also the very ancient Plagiaulax from the
prae-chalk Purbeck clay. But perhaps the best case for comparison with
the ruminants is that of the rhinoceroses. There are a great many
species and even genera of fossil and recent rhinoceroses. An old
Miocene kind (called Hyracodon) has eight little teeth in the front of
the lower jaw. In a Pliocene kind of rhinoceros (called _R.
incisivus_) these are reduced to two, the middle two, which are of
great size and project far forward--like those of the rat-goat of
Majorca. Among living rhinoceroses the Indian species have these two
front teeth, but smaller, whilst the square-mouthed African rhinoceros
has none at all! This helps us, as a parallel, to understand "the
strange case" of Myotragus. But, of course, the rhinoceroses are a
distinct line of animal descent--remote from Ruminants. They are (like
horses and tapirs) odd-toed hoofed beasts--not even-toed ones, as are
pigs, camels, and ruminants.

* * * * *

On first considering the question of the origin of the rat-goat of
Majorca, some naturalists will, no doubt, be tempted to suggest that
it is a case of a sudden "sport," a "mutation" as they now call it,
and not a result of gradual slowly developed reduction of the now lost
teeth and correspondingly gradual enlargement of the two middle ones,
taking many thousand generations to bring about. The fact that the
rat-goat is found on an island cut off from competition with other
animals will favour this view. On the other hand, there is the
important and really remarkable fact that familiar as man has been for
ages with Ruminants of many kinds--such as sheep, goats, cattle,
deer--there is absolutely no case on record of an "oddity" or
"m