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. But in quadrupeds and other animals the
reverse obtains. For they are of dwarf-like form, so that all the
pressure of their weight and corporeal substance is on their upper
part, and is withdrawn from the parts below. On this account they
are without buttocks and have hard legs. In order, however, to cover
and protect that part which serves for the evacuation of excrement,
nature has given them a tail of some kind or other, subtracting for
the purpose some of the nutriment which would otherwise go to the
legs. Intermediate in shape between man and quadrupeds is the ape,
belonging therefore to neither or to both, and having on this
account neither tail nor buttocks; no tail in its character of
biped, no buttocks in its character of quadruped. There is great
diversity of so-called tails; and this organ like others is
sometimes used by nature for by-purposes, being made to serve not only
as a covering and protection to the fundament, but also for other uses
and advantages of its possessor.
There are differences in the feet of quadrupeds. For in some of
these animals there is a solid hoof, and in others a hoof cloven
into two, and again in others a foot divided into many parts.
The hoof is solid when the body is large and the earthy matter
present in great abundance; in which case the earth, instead of
forming teeth and horns, is separated in the character of a nail,
and being very abundant forms one continuous nail, that is a hoof,
in place of several
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