400 



SYSTEMATIC ZOOLOGY 



large quantities of rats and mice, often for the mere pleasure of 

 killing. The odor of the secretion from its anal glands is very- 

 much like that of the skunk, but is not so lasting. Finally, we 

 may notice the sables, or martens ; the names are generally used 

 interchangeably. The American sable, or pine marten, is about 

 the size of a house cat, but has rather shorter legs. The Asiatic 

 sable, Mustela zibellina, lives in the coldest portions of Siberia 

 and Russia ; it furnishes the most costly of furs, and as the 

 animals are taken in the winter months, the hunters often suffer 

 greatly from the intense cold. 



Fig. 38b. Vulpei azaroe, a Brazilian fox. (From Brehm's Thierleben.) 



The next group of Carnivora consists of the doglike mam- 

 mals ; they as well as the cats walk on their toes instead of on 

 the whole sole of the foot as the bears do. These two methods 

 of walking are spoken of as digitigrade and plantigrade respec- 

 tively ; the terms are not restricted to the Carnivora, but may be 

 applied to any of the Mammalia. The doglike Carnivora gen- 

 erally have five toes on each of the front feet and four on the 

 hind, and the toes are armed with claws which are not retractile. 

 The foxes may be distinguished from the true dogs and the 

 wolves by their bushy tails and their more elongated muzzles. 

 Foxes are found in Europe, Asia, Africa, and North and South 

 America (Fig. 386). Our common red fox. Vutyes fulvus t varies 

 much in color, even to the extent of being gray or even black ; 



