7 2 CARNIVORES. 



hyaenas. The whole animal is heavily and rather clumsily built, and walks with 

 the greater part of the soles of the feet applied to the ground. The limbs are 

 thick and rather short ; the feet are provided with long, curved, and compressed 

 claws, and have their soles thickly haired. The back is much arched, and both 

 the head and tail are carried low. Dr. Coues compares the whole appearance of 

 the animal to that of a bear cub, with a superadded tail. The head is broad and 

 rounded, with a rather short and pointed muzzle, small and widely-separated eyes, 

 and small rounded ears, projecting but little above the general level of the fur. 

 The tail is comparatively short, thick, and bushy, with hairs varying from 6 to 



8 inches in length ; and it has somewhat the appearance of having been 

 truncated at the end. The fur of the body and limbs is rather coarse, long, and 

 thick ; and there is also a thick woolly under-fur. The general colour is dusky or 

 blackish brown ; but there is a distinct band of chestnut, or some lighter tint, 

 commencing behind the shoulders, then running along the flanks, and meeting its 

 fellow at the root of the tail. The front and sides of the head are light grey, 

 while upon the throat and chest there may be one or more light spots. The limbs 

 and under-parts, together with most of the tail, are very dark. The claws are 

 nearly white. There is considerable individual variation in the size of the glutton, 

 the length of the head and body in seven examples measured by Dr. Coues varying 

 from 26^ to 36 inches ; and that of the tail, with the hairs at the end, from 12i to 

 15 inches. About 29 inches may, however, be set down as the length of the head 

 and body in average-sized specimens. 



In Europe the glutton appears to have been long regarded as a kind of 



fabulous creature ; and it is remarkable that it is known by the same name — 



vielfrass — in almost all the continental countries. What may be the meaning 



of this name is uncertain ; some writers considering that it is compounded of two 



Swedish words signifying rock-cat, while others refuse to admit its Scandinavian 



origin. By the French Canadians the animal is termed Carcajou, and by the 



English residents of British North America, Quickhatch ; the latter, and probably 



also the former, being derived from some almost unpronounceable native name. 



The glutton is a forest-haunting animal, and in America is to be 

 Distribution. „ . . . 



found in all suitable districts to the north of the United States as far 



as the Arctic coast, traces of its presence having been observed on Melville Island, 



in about latitude 75°. Its southern limits on the eastern side of the continent may 



be set down as about latitude 42° or 43°, or, roughly speaking, that of Lake Erie ; 



but on the western side it descends lower, having been definitely recorded from 



Salt Lake, while in the mountains it may extend as far as Arizona and New Mexico. 



The animal is, however, now virtually exterminated throughout the United States. 



In Europe the glutton is found at the present day in Norway, Sweden, Lapland, 



the north of Russia, namely, in the neighbourhood of the White Sea, in the 



Government of Perm, and the whole of Siberia, and Kamschatka. In the time of 



Eichwald it was still to be found in Lithuania, but is now extinct there. Solitary 



specimens have, indeed, been killed in Saxony and Brunswick ; but these must be 



regarded merely as stragglers, and not as indicating that the range of the species 



extended so far south within historic times. At an earlier period of the earth's 



history the glutton ranged, however, to the British Isles, its fossilised remains 



