CARNIVORA. 107 
(glenoid) cavity, there can be no side motion, but a vertical chopping 
one only. The skeleton of a typical carnivore is the perfection of 
strength and suppleness. The tissue of the bones is dense and 
white; the head small and beatifully articulated ; the spine flexible 
yet strong. In those which show the greatest activity, such as the 
cats, civets and dogs, the spinous processes, especially in the lumbar 
region, are greatly developed—more so than in the bears. These 
serve for the attachment of the powerful muscles of the neck and 
back. The clavicle or collar-bone is wanting, or but rudimentary. The 
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stomach is simple ; the intestinal canal short; liver lobed; organs of 
sight, hearing, and smell much developed. 
Now we come to the divisions into which this group has been 
separated by naturalists. I shall not attempt to describe the various 
systems, but take the one which appears to me the simplest and best 
to fit in with Cuvier’s general arrangement, which I have followed. 
Modern zoologists have divided the family into two great groups—the 
Fissipedia (split-feet) or land Carnivora, and the Pivnipedia (fin-feet 
or water Carnivora. Of the land Carnivora some naturalists have 
made the following three groups on the characteristics of the feet, v7z., 
flantigrada, Sub-plantigrada and Digitigrada, ‘The dogs and cats, it 
is well known, walk on their toes—they are the Digitigrada ; the bears 
and allied forms on the palms of their hands and soles of their feet, 
