CHAPTEE XIII 



CAKNIVOKA ^ FISSIPEDIA 



Order VII. CARNIVORA 



This order may be thus detined : — tSmall to large quadrupeds, 



terrestrial, arboreal, or aquatic, of usually carnivorous habits. 



The teeth have generally sharp and cutting edges, and the canines 



are well developed ; the incisors are small, and four to six in 



numl)er. The numl;)er of toes is never less than four. There 



are usually strong and sharp claws. The clavicles are incomplete 



or absent. In tlie hand the scaphoid and lunar jjones are always 



united. The brain is well developed, and the hemispheres are 



well convoluted. The stomach is always simple, while the 



caecum, if present, is always small. The members of this 



group have a deciduate and zonary placenta. 



The fewness of the characters used in the above definition is 



chiefly owing to the fact that the Seals and Sea-lions, although 



they are referable without a doubt to this order, have undergone 



in their metamorphosis into aquatic animals so many changes that 



some of the main features in the structure of their terrestrial 



relatives have been lost. This group will, however, be again 



characterised. We shall deal at present with the land division 



of the Carnivora, the Carnivora Fissipedia as they are generally 



termed. The name is of course given to them to distinguish 



them from the corresponding division of the Pinnipedia. In 



the latter group the feet and hands are modified into " fins " ; in 



the other the fingers and toes are cleft, as with terrestrial beasts 



generally. 



^ For a general account of the osteology, see Flower, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1869, p. 4 ; 

 and for muscular anatomy, "Windle and Parsons, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1897, ]>. 370, and 

 1898, p. 152. 



