ORDER I. 



RAPACIA, 



Animals having three kinds of teeth : incisors, canines, and molars. Mammas free, ventral. Thumbs not opposable to 

 the fingers. 



The rapacious animals, consisting of two very distinct orders, Carnivora and Insectivora, are 

 readily distinguished by the above characters from the other great groups of the mammalia with 

 which they are most nearly allied. The want of an opposable thumb and of flat finger nails, 

 together with the ventral position of the mammse, distinguish them from the Quadrumana; 

 the absence of the elongated finger frame work, with its elastic membrane, from the bats. 

 From the Marsupialia they may be known by the absence of marsupial bones and pouch, and 

 by their free teats. 



As a general rule the condyle of the lower jaw, with its glenoid cavity are transverse, allow 

 ing but little motion except in a vertical direction. The brain has distinct convolutions ; the 

 posterior lobes are short. The stomach is simple, and the intestinal canal short. 1 



The rapacious animals are well distributed over the world, North America having a large 

 share of the species. They nearly all live on animal food, and are, in many cases, specially 

 adopted to the capture of particular forms. Some always kill their own prey, others take it as 

 furnished by other agencies. 



The species all fall within one or other, of the two orders, Insectivora and Carnivora. 



Wagner, Suppl. Schreb., II, 4. 



