92 MAMMALIA. 



Sec. Its external resemblance to the common Mole of Europe ( 1 ) 

 is so great, that it is easy to mistake the one for the other. 



FAMILY III. 



CARNIVORA. 



Although the term carnivorous is applicable to all unguicu- 

 lated animals, not quadrumanate, that have three sorts of 

 teethj inasmuch as they all use more or less animal aliment, 

 there are, however, many of them, the two preceding families 

 especially, which are compelled by weakness and the conical 

 tubercles of their grinders to live almost entirely on Insects. 

 It is in the present family that the sanguinary appetite for 

 flesh is joined to the force necessary to obtain it. There are 

 always four stout, long, and separated canini, between which 

 are six incisors in each jaw, the root of the second of the 

 lower ones being placed a little more inwards than the others. 

 The molars are either wholly trenchant, or have some blunted 

 tuberculous parts, but they are never bristled with conical 

 points. 



These animals are so much the more exclusively carnivo- 

 rous, as their teeth are the more completely trenchant, and 

 the proportions of their regimen may be calculated from the 

 extent of the tuberculous surface of their teeth, compared with 

 that which is trenchant. The Bears, which can live altoge- 

 ther on vegetables, have nearly all their teeth tuberculated. 



The anterior molars are the most trenchant; next comes a 

 molar, larger than the others, usually furnished with a larger 

 or smaller tuberculous heel ; then follow one or two small teeth, 

 that are perfectly flat. It is with these small teeth in the 

 back part of the mouth that the dog chews the grass he some- 

 times swallows. We will call, with M. Fr. Cuvier, this large 

 upper molar, and its corresponding one below, carnivorous 

 teeth; the anterior pointed ones, false molars; and the poste- 

 rior blunted ones, tuberculous teeth. 



(1) Itis the Common Mole of the United States. Am. Ed. 



