CARNARIA. 79 



FAMILY III. 



CARNIVORA. 



Although the term carnivorous (Carnassiers) is applicable to all un- 

 guiculated animals, not quadrumanate, that have three sorts of teeth, inas- 

 much as they all feed more or less on animal aliment, there are, however, 

 many of them, the two preceding families especially, which are compelled 

 by weakness, and the conical tubercles of their grinders, to live almost en- 

 tirely on insects. It is in the present family that the sanguinary appetite 

 for flesh is joined to the force necessary to obtain it. There are always 

 four stout, long, and separated canines, between which are six incisors in 

 each jaw, the root of the second of the lower ones being placed a little 

 more inwards than the others. The molars are either wholly trenchant, 

 or blended merely with blunted tuberculous parts, but they are not bristled 

 with conical points. 



These animals are so much the more exclusively carnivorous, as their 

 teeth are the more completely trenchant, and the proportions of their re- 

 gimen may be calculated from the extent of the tuberculous surface of their 

 teeth, as compared with that portion which is trenchant. The Bears, 

 which can live altogether on vegetables, have nearly all their teeth tuber- 

 culated. 



The anterior molars are the most trenchant; next comes a molar larger 

 than the others, usually furnished with a larger or smaller tuberculous 

 heel ; and behind it one or two small teeth, that are perfectly flat. It is 

 also with these small teeth in the back part of the mouth that the dog 

 chews the grass he sometimes swallows. We shall call, with M. Fr. Cu- 

 vier, this large upper molar, and its corresponding one below, lacerators 

 (carnassiers); the anterior pointed ones, false molars; and the posterior 

 blunted ones, tuberculous teeth. 



It is easy to conceive that those genera which have the fewest false mo- 

 lars, and whose jaws are the shortest, are those best adapted for biting. 



It is upon these differences that the genera can be most safely esta- 

 blished. 



It is necessary, however, that the consideration of the hind foot should 

 be added to them. 



Several genera, like those of the two preceding families, in walking, or 

 when they stand erect, place the whole sole of the foot on the ground, a 

 fact proved by the total want of hair on every part of the sole. 



Others, and by far the greater number, walk only on the ends of the 

 toes, by raising up at the same time the tarsus. They are much swifter ; 



