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The Horse (One of the most beautiful)

The horse is one of the most beautiful and graceful animals in nature, and perhaps the most useful to man, though in this respect it would be difficult to say which of the four or five domesticated quadrupeds bears the palm. During life, the horse and the dog would each contest the point; while in relative value after death, the bullock, sheep, and swine, are fairly entitled to an equal share with them. But there is something very captivating in the appearance of the horse, whether used for the purposes of war, or for racing, or for hunting, or road-work; and in all these several capacities the readers of this book may possibly admire him, though it is chiefly as the riding-horse, or hack, that he usually attracts their notice. In the animal kingdom, the horse belongs to the division VERTEBRATA, and class MAMMALIA, he having a back-bone composed of vertebrae, and his young being suckled. His broad and undivided hoof places him among the ungulata; and lastly, his teeth are as follows, viz. six front teeth, above and below, called "nippers'" two canine in each jaw, called "tusks;" and the remainder, consisting of grinders, having flat surfaces opposed to each other, with rough ridges on them, by which the grass, hay, and corn are rubbed or ground down to a fine pulp, adapted to the stomach. These teeth are moved or rolled on each other by a peculiar action of the muscles of the jaw, so as to aid the process.