80 CARNIVORA. 



SECTION XIV. 

 III. DIVISION of THE CARNIVORA. 



II. PLANTIGRADA. (Lat. pfanta, sole of the foot, gradior, to walk.) 

 This name is given to those carnivorous animals which apply the 

 whole, or part of the sole of the foot to the ground in walking. 

 They are able to raise themselves on their hinder limbs or haunches, 

 and easily keep an upright position. There is a slowness and 

 heaviness in their motions; their habits are generally nocturnal, 

 and in northern latitudes, they are in a lethargic condition during 

 the winter. 



First in order are the URSIDAE, (Lat. ursus, a bear,) the Bears 

 forming a connecting link between this family and the herbivo- 

 rous animals. These lay the whole of the foot upon the ground 

 in walking, which occasions their well known heavy, shuffling 

 gait, but allows them to raise themselves with facility, and to 

 maintain an erect position. When in this position they fre- 

 quently use the fore paws in self defence, or else to strike or 

 hug an assailant to death, by muscular pressure. The entire soJe 

 of the foot is naked. The feet have five toes each, fortified with 

 strong, curved, and somewhat obtuse claws, adopted for digging; 

 their grinding teeth are more or less tuberculated, and the food 

 is either animal or vegetable. In form they are generally robust. 

 The genera of this family inhabit both continents. 



Ursus. The BEAR. Of this animal, according to Audubon, 

 eight species have been described, "three existing in Europe, 

 one of which, the Polar Bear, is common also to America; one 

 in the mountainous districts of India ; one in Java ; one in 

 Thibet ; and three in North America." The head of the Bear, 

 is large, the body stout, and thickly covered with coarse, 

 shaggy hair ; the ears are large and slightly pointed ; the limbs 

 are stout and massive ; the five toes have strong curved claws, 

 fitted for digging rather than for taking prey ; the tail is short, 

 and usually hidden in the hair of this animal ; the teeth are forty- 

 two in number ; the grinders have flattened crowns, surmounted 

 with tubercles, and are fitted for bruising vegetables, rnther than 

 cutting flesh, and the incisor teeth give these animals but a 

 limited power of cutting it, so that they are ranked as the most 

 omnivorous of all the Carnivora. Some of them subsist on 

 vegetable food alone, and nearly all are capable of supporting 

 themselves upon it. They are nocturnal, but often seen wander- 

 ing about during the day. Their habits are unsocial, most of 

 them frequenting the recesses of mountains and caverns, and the 



