CARMVORA. 57 



In their feet and the whole of their exterior they resemble the Mole, but 

 their tail is longer, and what more particularly serves to distinguish them from 

 the former is, that their nostrils are surrounded with little movable cartila- 

 ginous points, which, when they separate, radiate like a kind of star, as repre- 

 sented in the engraving. 



One species particularly is found in North America Sorex cristatus, L. 

 (The Radiated Mole) similar to the Mole of Europe, the nose excepted, but 

 having a tail more than double the length of that of the latter. 



SCALOPS, Cuvier. 



Teeth very similar to those of the Desmans, except that the small or false 

 molars are less numerous, the muzzle is simply pointed, like that of the 

 Shrew; their hands are widened, armed with strong nails fitted to excavate 

 the earth, and exactly similar to those of Moles : in fact their mode of life is 

 the same; their eyes are equally small, and their ears quite as much hidden. 

 The only species known is the 



S. aquations. It appears to inhabit a great part of North America, along 

 rivers, &c. Its external resemblance to the common Mole of Europe * is so 

 great, that it is easy to mistake the one for the other. 



FAMILY III. 



CARNIVORA. 



Although the term carnivorous is applicable to all unguiculated animals, 

 not quadrumanate, that have three sorts of teeth, inasmuch as they all use 

 more or 1 ss animal food, there are, however, many of them, the two 

 preceding families especially, which are compelled by weakness and the conical 

 tubercles of their grinders to live almost entirely on Insects. It is in the 

 present family that the sanguinary appetite for flesh is joined to the force 

 necessary to obtain it. There are always four stout, long, and separated 

 canini, between which are six incisors in each jaw, the root of the second 

 of the lower ones being placed a little more inwards than the others. The 

 molars are either wholly trenchant, or have some blunted tuberculous parts, 

 but they are never bristled with conical points. 



These animals are so much the more exclusively carnivorous, as their teeth 

 are the more completely trenchant, and the proportions of their regimen may 

 be calculated from the extent of the tuberculous surface of their teeth, com- 

 pared with that which is trenchant. The Bears, which can subsist altogether 

 on vegetables, have nearly all their teeth tuber culated. 



The anterior molars are the most trenchant ; next comes a molar, larger 

 than the others, usually furnished with a larger or smaller tuberculous heel ; 



* It is the Common Mole of the United States. ED. 



