GULO. 



680 



ones and the terns ; and, as the smaller gulls, and 

 especially the terns, are more rapid fliers than the 

 large gulls, the arctic skuas are more rapid in pro- 

 portion. Their proper localities are more northerly 

 than those of the species with which they have been 

 confounded, and, generally speaking, they do not 

 come so far inland. They are birds of pleasing 

 colours, handsome form, anil rapid flight, and, alto- 

 gether, they possess no inconsiderable degree of 

 interest. Indeed, though the skuas have been most 

 unjustly accused of being fouler feeders than any 

 other of the feathered race, there are perhaps no 

 birds better denned as a genus, more characteristic 

 of the localities which they frequent, and, altogether, 

 more interesting to the student of nature. Majestic as 

 the sea is in its own phenomena, and restless as are its 

 waters, the sea would lose much of its interest, were 

 it not for the countless myriads of birds which sport 

 over its surface, and feed upon its produce. Anyone 

 who has visited a favourite resort of sea-birds, while 

 they were there, and again after they had quitted, 

 and spread themselves over the ocean, can tell how 

 desolate those places are, notwithstanding their 

 majesty as a part of nature in repose, when they are 

 without their gulls and their skuas. 



GULO Glutton. A genus of mammalia, belong- 

 ing to Cuvier's great order, Carnafsier, or those which 

 feed upon animal substances, and to the third divi- 

 sion of that order, Carnivora, or those which are more 

 or less in the habit of killing warm-blooded animals for 

 the purpose of feeding on their flesh. Of carnivorous 

 animals, all the genus Gulo belong to the plantigrade 

 division, or those which walk on the entire length of 

 the tarsus, or sole of the foot. Animals which have 

 this structure, have of course the command of one 

 joint less of the leg in the air, than those which walk 

 on the toes ; and, therefore, their walking march is 

 much slower : generally speaking, too, they are lower 

 on the legs, and from applying the whole length of 

 the legs to the ground, they seem lower than they are 

 in reality. These circumstances are, however, at- 

 tended with a firmness upon the legs in those animals, 

 which is perhaps peculiar to them ; and many of 

 them have the spine very long and elastic, so that 

 they combine the motion of a leaping animal with the 

 action of the spine of a snake, and thus advance with 

 far greater celerity than from their apparently short 

 legs one would be apt to suppose. See PLANTIGRADA. 



Zoologists have sometimes been at a loss in what 

 part of the system to class the animals composing the 

 genus gulo. Some have arranged them with the 

 weasel tribe, others with the bears, and others again 

 with the badgers ; but though they have some cha- 

 racters in common with the bears, and also with the 

 badgers, they are clearly separated from the weasel 

 family, because that family are digitigrade, or walk on 

 the toes, and are consequently far swifter in their 

 movements than animals of the genus gulo. Cuvier 

 places them, and we think with great judgment, the 

 very last of the plantigrade division, by which means 

 they are brought next to the martens, with which the 

 digitigrade division begins ; and in this arrangement 

 they immediately follow the badgers. This genus, in 

 so far as we are acquainted with it, for the habits of 

 some of the species are not a little obscure, and they 

 all dwell in wild places, remote from the habitations 

 of men, and live in comparative concealment, may 

 be said to partake a little of the form of the badger, 

 and of the disposition of the martens ; for they are 



NAT. HIST. VOL. II. 



certainly the most decidedly carnivorous of all the 

 plantigrade animals. 



Their generic characters are : three false grinders 

 in each side of the upper jaw, and four in each side 

 of the under, situated in front of one carnivorous 

 tooth, which has very trenchant points, and is well 

 made out. Behind this there is only one small tuber- 

 culated tooth in each side of each jaw. This is exactly 

 the mouth of the martens ; and it indicates as great a 

 power of tearing flesh, and as little adaptation for 

 living upon insects or vegetable matter, as is to be 

 found in the whole order of carnivorous animals. 



Notwithstanding this carnivorous disposition (for in 

 wild animals, that is, in animals in a state of nature, 

 " As is the structure so is the habit," is a maxim which 

 never fails), these animals seem dull-and heavy, espe- 

 cially in their motions ; and though many of them 

 can, by the help of their flexible spine, leap a consi- 

 derable way, there is none of them that can pursue 

 its prey successfully in regular chase. They are 

 generally animals with a large head, and the jaws 

 not greatly produced, so that they are remarkable 

 rather for holding on by the staunchness of their bite, 

 than for giving a powerful snap, as is done by long- 

 muzzled animals. The ears of this genus are, in 

 general, but little developed, which leads to the con- 

 clusion that they find their prey by the sight and not 

 by hearing. The tail is short in the more charac- 

 teristic species, but longer in some of the others ; and 

 instead of the pouch under the tail, which in the 

 badger secretes so offensive an odour, they have a 

 simple fold of the skin. All their feet are furnished 

 with five toes, and those toes in general with strong, 

 crooked, and sharp-pointed claws. Those claws are 

 not decidedly prehensile, like the claws of the cat 

 tribe ; but still some species at least can readily 

 climb trees by means of them, and also keep their 

 hold upon the backs of their larger prey, in the same 

 manner as is done by lions and other members of the 

 cat family. It is to be understood when we speak of 

 a plantigrade animal, that the expression applies more 

 particularly to the hind feet, or at all events, that the 

 elbow joint in the fore-feet acts in the same manner 

 as the tarsal joint in the hind ones, and that thus, 

 though such animals as the genus gulo are ungainly 

 walkers, the whole of the hind legs come well into 

 play when they leap. These animals are remarkable 

 for the fineness and the thickness of their fur ; and 

 some of them have, in respect of colour, a different 

 arrangement from almost every known species, not 

 only of mammalia, but of warm-blooded animals ge- 

 nerally. Their colours are very often much darker 

 on [the under part than on the upper, whereas in 

 every other case of difference in the colour, of the 

 two the upper part is invariably the darker. This 

 remark applies, of course, to the unbroken colours in 

 a state of nature, and not to those variations which 

 take place in domestic animals. There are several 

 species of this genus, some of which occur in both 

 continents, and some only in one, some in the ex- 

 treme polar latitudes, and some in tropical countries, 

 and there are instances in which the number of false 

 grinders differs from the typical number above stated, 

 and where the food also varies from that of the more 

 typical species ; but the characteristic ones are in- 

 habitants of the north, both of the eastern continent 

 and of America. 



COMMON GLUTTON (G. vulgnrh}. In this species 

 the length from the nose to the tail is about twenty- 

 XX 



