592 



CARNIVORA 



"A hunter and his family, having left their lodge unguarded 

 during their absence, on their return found it completely gutted — 

 the walls were there, but nothing else. Blankets, guns, kettles, axes, 

 cans, knives, and all the other paraphernalia of a trapper's tent had 

 vanished, and the tracks left by the beast showed who had been the 

 thief. The family set to work, and, by carefully following up all his 

 paths, recovered, with some trifling exceptions, the whole of the lost 

 property." The pairing season occurs in March, and the female, 

 secure in her burrow, produces her young, four or five at a birth, 

 in June or July. In defence of these she is exceedingly bold, and 

 the Indians, according to Coues, " have been heard to say that they 

 would sooner encounter a she-bear with her cubs than a carcajou (the 

 Indian name of the glutton) under the same circumstances." 



Fossil remains of the Wolverene are found in cavern and other 

 Pleistocene deposits in various parts of Europe. 



Suborder Pixxipedia. 



The Eared -Seals, Walruses, and Seals differ from the rest of 

 the Carnivora mainly in the structure of their limbs, which are 

 modified for aquatic progression, — the two proximal segments being- 

 very short and partially enveloped in the general integument of the 

 body; while the third segment, especially in the hinder extremities, 

 is elongated, expanded, and webbed. There are always five well- 

 developed digits on each limb. In the hind limb the two marginal 

 digits (first and fifth) are stouter and generally longer than the 

 others. The teeth also differ from those of the more tj-pical 

 Carnivora. The incisors are always fewer than :;. The cheek 

 series consists generally of four premolars and one molar of very 

 uniform characters, with never more than two roots, and with 

 conical, more or less compressed, pointed crowns, which may have 

 accessory cusps, placed before or behind the principal one, but 

 are never broad and tuberculated ; and there is no differentiated 

 carnassial tooth. The milk-teeth are very small and simple, and 

 are shed or absorbed at a very early age, usually either before or 

 within a few days after birth. The brain is relatively large ; the 

 cerebral hemispheres being broad in proportion to their length, 

 with numerous and complex convolutions. There is a very short 

 caecum. The kidneys are divided into numerous distinct lobules. 

 There are no Cowper's glands. The mammae are either two or 

 four, and abdominal in position. No clavicles. Tail always very 

 short. Eyes very large and exposed, with flat cornea. 



The animals of this group are all acpiatic in their mode of life, 

 spending the greater part of their time in the water, swimming and 

 diving with great facility, feeding mainly on fish, crustaceans, and 

 other marine animals, and progressing on land with difficulty. 



