FAMILY. 



" ; Y;. ? <--.':;- > : - ; CANIDAE. ; - - -.;--; <- ;. 



FA*. CH. Digitigrade carnivora without retractile claws. Feet apparently all four-toed, the foremost ones, however, 

 with a rudimentary thumb high up, to which a claw Is attached, (sometimes wanting.) Molars ^ 7 , or more. 



Of that family of the Carnivora which immediately succeeds the Fdidae, namely, the 

 Hyaenidae, North America has no representatives. In general appearance the hyenas resemble 

 the dogs most closely like them, having blunt and non-retractile claws, with the anterior feet 

 really four-toed. In this respect they differ from both the cats' and dogs, and agree with them 

 in being digitigrade. The dentition in number and shape of teeth is intermediate between the 

 two, the formula being incisors, ^j|; canines, \'^ ; premolars, ~; molars, ^=34. There is 

 but one tubercular molar above behind the sectorial, and none below. The numerical difference 

 in dental formula between the hyenas and cats is in the existence, in the former, of an addi 

 tional premolar on each side of each jaw. 



The family of dogs is equally well marked with that of the cats, and like it, is distributed all 

 over the surface of the globe. Indigenous species occur in all habitable latitudes, and the 

 domestic dog lives and thrives wherever man has obtained a foothold. 



The dogs in many respects resemble the hyenas more than the cats like the former, being 

 without retractile claws. The teeth are, however, more numerous, the normal formula consist 

 ing of incisors, |^; canines, ; premolars, ^; molars, |^ = 42. In one group, however, 

 Megalotis, (Agrodius of Ham. Smith,) there is a still greater number of teeth, in the addition of 

 two true molars above, and one below on each side of the jaw. 



In size the Canidae vary considerably, from the largest wolves to the small Fennec, (Canis 

 zerda of authors.) This, however, is scarcely exceeded by the diminutive Vulpes littoralis of 

 the coast of California, which is hardly larger than a house-cat. 



The chief characteristics of the teeth of the Canidae, as summed up by Owen, are as follows : 

 The incisors are in a series forming the segment of a circle, and increase progressively in size 

 from the first to the third or outer one ; the trenchant margin of the crown is divided by two 

 notches into a large middle and two lateral lobes, the inner lobe being obsolete in the external 

 incisor. The premolars have strong sub-compressed conical crowns, gradually enlarging pos 

 teriorly and acquiring one or two accessory posterior lobes with the increase in size. The fourth 

 upper premolar is the sectorial tooth, and is much larger than the one anterior to it ; its blade 

 is divided into two cones by a wide notch, the anterior cone being strongest and most produced. 

 The tubercle is developed from the inner side of the base of this lobe. The first and second 

 upper molars are tuberculate, each supports two external cusps and a broad internal basal sub- 

 tuberculate talon ; the second molar is less than half the size of the first. The first true molar 

 below is the sectorial one ; the blade is divided by a vertical linear fissure into two cones, the 

 posterior the largest ; behind this the base of the crown extends into a broad quadrate tuberculate 

 talon. The second molar has two anterior cusps on the same transverse line, and a posterior 

 broad flat talon ; the last lower molar is the smallest of all the teeth. 



