THE MAMMALS 



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extinct buffalo and the Rocky Mountain sheep are the best 

 known of our native species. None of the odd-toed 

 ungulates are native to the United States. The wild 

 horses and asses of both North and South America are 

 descendants of animals brought over from the old world. 

 The order Carnivora includes the flesh eaters, viz., tigers, 

 lions, wolves, dogs, cats, bears and many other related 



FIG. 175. The American prong horn antelope. (From a group in the 

 museum of the California Academy of Sciences.) 



forms. They have soft, padded feet and four or five well- 

 developed toes, with strong claws which in the cat family 

 are curved and retractile and adapted for seizing prey. 

 The teeth are fitted for tearing flesh rather than for grind- 

 ing, and there are usually well-developed, pointed canines. 

 The cat family, Felidae, includes some of the largest of 

 the flesh eaters, such as the lions, tigers and leopards of 

 the old world, and the jaguars and pumas of the new. The 



