What is "ruminantia"

Ruminantia \Ru`mi*nan"ti*a\, n. pl. [NL.] (Zo["o]l.) A division of Artiodactyla having four stomachs. This division includes the camels, deer, antelopes, goats, sheep, neat cattle, and allies.

Note: The vegetable food, after the first mastication, enters the first stomach (r). It afterwards passes into the second (n), where it is moistened, and formed into pellets which the animal has the power of bringing back to the mouth to be chewed again, after which it is swallowed into the third stomach (m), whence it passes to the fourth (s), where it is finally digested.

Ruminantia is a taxon within the order Artiodactyla that includes many of the well-known large grazing or browsing mammals: among them cattle, goats, sheep, deer, and antelope. All members of the Ruminantia employ foregut fermentation and are ruminants: they digest food in two steps, chewing and swallowing in the normal way to begin with, and then regurgitating the semidigested cud to rechew it and thus extract the maximum possible food value.