5. The rodents are present in great numbers not only of individuals, but of species and genera; as rats, mice, jumping-mice, squirrels, porcupines, beavers, rabbits, etc.
6. The hoofed animals, ungulates, are represented by the bison, musk-ox, several deer, antelope, mountain-sheep and mountain-goat, tapir, and swine (peccary). Abundant remains of extinct species of the horse family have been found, ranging far back in geological time, but native horses are not known to have existed since the coming of Europeans. The most notable vacancies in this order in the living fauna are the rhinoceros, hippopotamus, camel, giraffe, and elephant, although these are abundantly represented by fossil forms.
7. The Sirenia, which includes certain large herbivorous
marine mammals of wide distribution, are represented on the borders of the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea by the manatee.
8. The Cetacea are present in the marine waters adjacent to the coast, more especially in the north, where whales of several species, dolphins, the narwhal, etc., are found.
9. Of the Edentata, which are so characteristic of the fauna of South America, and with one exception (the scaly ant-eater, not found in America) do not occur in the Old World, only the armadillo can be credited to North America; of this, two species occur from Texas southward.
10. The marsupials, found nowhere else in the world to-day except in Australia and America, are represented by the opossum, of which two species are common in the United States.
11. The lowest known order of the mammalia, the Monotremata, represented in Australia by the duck-billed platypus (Ornithorhynchus) and the Echidna, is unknown in America.
Considered in reference to their abundance, large size of individuals, and number of species, in comparison with the other orders present, North America may be said to be the home of herbivores. The only continent in rivalry with it in this respect is Africa. More abundant in individuals and species than the herbivorous mammals, however, but smaller in size and frequently diminutive, are the rodents. The carnivores are fortunately limited in number of species, although the individuals of certain species are at times numerous, but not in general dangerous to man.
SOME REPRESENTATIVE MAMMALS