244 TYPES OF ANIMAL LIFE 



is so well known, and they are all formed so almost com- 

 pletely on one type, that but few words need here be said 

 about them. They are all strictly digitigrade animals 

 with long muzzles and two tubercular teeth behind each 

 sectorial tooth, except the long-eared Cape dog, which 

 has more, the dholes, which have one less below, 

 and the bush dog, which has one less on each side, 

 both above and below. All have five toes to each fore 

 paw and four toes to each hind paw, except the hyena- 

 dog, which has no more than four toes to any of its feet. 

 There are above thirty- five species of the dog tribe, and 

 some are found naturally in every quarter of the globe, 

 except that the dingo of Australia may have been arti- 

 ficially introduced there. The fox is cosmopolitan, except 

 as regards Australia and South America. In the Old 

 World, species of the dog tribe are found from Spitz- 

 bergen and Siberia to the Cape and Java ; and in the 

 New World, from the shores of the Arctic Ocean to 

 Tierra del Fuego and the Falkland Islands. They are, 

 however, not naturally natives of Madagascar, the West 

 Indies, New Zealand, Celebes, the Philippine Islands, or 

 Ceylon. The wolf, fox and Arctic fox are common to 

 both the Old World and the New. Of the remaining 

 thirty-two species, twenty belong to the former, while 

 only twelve are peculiar to the latter. 



Such, then, are the groups into which the existing 

 beasts of prey may be divided, and thus we may come to 

 apprehend " what is a racoon," as far as science yet 

 enables us to answer that question. We find that car- 

 nivorous animals are made up of a dog tribe, a weasel 

 tribe, a hyena tribe, a civet tribe, a cat tribe, a bear 

 tribe, and a racoon tribe. Among all these the racoon 

 and its allies holds a peculiar, because a more or less 

 neutral, position. The dogs, the cats, and the bears 



