CARNIVOROUS MAMMALIA. 467 



§ 10. Caruivora. 



The type of the Mammalia may be considered as 

 having attained its full developement in the carni- 

 vorous tribes, which comprehend the larger beasts 

 of prey. As their food is animal, they require a 

 less complicated apparatus for digestion than herbi- 

 vorous quadrupeds, possess greater activity and 

 strength, and enjoy a greater range of sensitive and 

 intellectual faculties. In accordance with these 

 conditions we may notice the greater expansion of 

 their brain, the superior acuteness of their senses, 

 and their enormous muscular power. The trunk 

 of the body is lighter than that of vegetable feeders, 

 especially in the abdominal region, and is com- 

 pressed laterally : the spine is more pliant and 

 elastic,* the limbs have greater freedom of motion, 

 the extremities are more subdivided, and they are 

 armed with formidable weapons of offence and 

 destruction. Great mechanical power was required 

 for raising the head, not only on account of the 

 force to be exerted in tearing flesh, but also that 

 these animals might be enabled to carry away their 

 prey in their mouths. Hence we find that in the 

 Lion, of which the skeleton is represented in its 

 relations to the outline of the body in Fig. 221, the 

 first vertebra of the neck, or atlas, has very widely 

 expanded transverse processes, while the second 



* The suppleness of the spine might at once be inferred, on the 

 simple inspection of the skeleton, from the circumstance that the 

 vertebrae of the neck and loins have a comparatively small devolope- 

 ment of their spinous processes. 



