108 MAMMALIA OF INDIA. 
more or less, and thus form the other two divisions, but there is another 
classification which recommends itself by its simplicity and accuracy. 
Broadly speaking, there are three types of land carnivores—the cat, 
the dog, and the bear, which have been scientifically named /uroidea 
(from the Greek az/ouros, a cat); Cynoidea (from kuon, a dog); and 
Arctoidea (from arctos,a bear). The distinction is greater between the 
families of Digitigrades, the cat and dog, than between the Plantigrades 
and Sub-plantigrades, and therefore I propose to adopt the following 
arrangement :— 
Pantigrades.” 
I. ARCTOIDEA \ Se 
Sub-plantigrades. 
II. AZLUROIDEA } Diesen 
III. CynorDEA does 
I may here remark that the Insectivora are in most cases plantigrade, 
therefore the term is not an apposite one as applied to the bear and 
bear-like animals only, but in treating of them under the term Arctoidea 
we may divide them again into Plantigrades and Sub-plantigrades. 
ARCTOIDEA. 
PLANTIGRADA, 
URSID. 
The bears differ from the dogs and cats widely in form and manner, 
and diet. The cat has a light springy action, treading on the tips of its 
toes, a well-knit body glistening in a silky coat, often richly variegated, 
“a clean cut,” rounded face, with beautifully chiselled nostrils and thin 
lips, and lives exclusively on flesh. The bear shambles along with an 
awkward gait, placing the entire sole of his foot on the ground; he has 
rough dingy fur, a snout like a pig’s, and is chiefly a vegetarian—and in 
respect to this last peculiarity his dentition is modified considerably : 
the incisors are large, tri-cuspidate :; the canines somewhat smaller than 
in the restricted carnivora; these are followed by three small teeth, 
which usually fall out at an early period, then comes a permanent 
premolar of considerable size, succeeded by two molars in the upper, 
and three in the under jaw. The dental formula is therefore : Inc., 3-3; 
Pe as | 
— — yy . 
can., 2 : ; premolars, *—4; molars, a In actual numbers this 
formula agrees with that for the dogs; but the form of the teeth is very 
different, inasmuch as the large premolars and the molars have flat 
tuberculated crowns, constituting them true grinders, instead of the 
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