204 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



instance, we found Cryptoprocta to be intermediate between Cats and Civets, and yet, if we had 

 followed the order indicated by this relationship, we should have had to ignore the close connection 

 between Cats and Hyaenas, and that between Hysenas and Civets, through the intermediation of the 

 Aard Wolf. 



It is necessary, then, to devise some method of writing down the names of the families, other than 

 that of placing them one under the other, if we are to get anything like a clear notion of their mutual 

 relationships. The method adopted by Professor Flower is perhaps the most convenient, and following 

 him, we arrange the groups thus : 



FELID;E. HYJENID*:. URSID.E. 



CRYPTOPROCTID^E. PROTELID^E. CANUTE. PROCYONID.K. AILURIDJE. 



VlVERRIDJE. MUSTELIDJK. 



In this scheme we see an expression of the fact that the Dogs (Canidce) form a central group, from 

 which the families of the ^Eluroidea those to the left diverge in one direction, and the families of the 

 Arctoidea those to the right in the other direction. The Civets ( Viverridce) and the Weasel family 

 (Mustelidca), being the least modified of the ^Eluroid and Arctoid sections respectively, are placed at 

 the bottom of the table, the Cats (Felidce) and Bears (Ursidce), being the most modified, are placed at 

 the top. The two latter families, again, are placed at opposite extremities of the table, as far from one 

 another as possible, to indicate the great gap which separates the digitigrade, short-skulled, active, 

 carnivorous Cats, from the plantigrade, long-skulled, clumsy, herbivorous Bears. To be quite accurate, 

 such a scheme should take account not merely of families, but of genera : in our table, for instance, 

 there is nothing to show the immense amount of specialisation undergone by one section of the 

 Mustelidce the Otters to fit them for aquatic life ; but such a detailed arrangement is quite beyond 

 the scope of the present work. 



In considering the chief forms of Carnivora existing at the present day, we have by no means 

 exhausted this varied and interesting group, for a number of its members, the forerunners of those 

 now living, have vanished from the face of the earth, and are known to us only by their bones, which 

 we find here and there entombed in the strata of which the crust of our earth is composed. 



In the newest, that is the most recently deposited, set of strata, those which together form 

 the beds of the Pleistocene period, we find a very curious change in the flesh-eaters inhabiting 

 England. Instead of having nothing but Wild Cats, Wolves, and Bears the only wild beasts known 

 to have existed in the historical period we have the enormous Cave Lion (Felis spefaa), besides the 

 Cave Bear (Ursus spelceus), and the Cave Hyaena (Hycena spelcea), the last being merely a variety 

 of the Spotted Hysena (Hycena crocuta) of the present day. The presence of the first and last of 



the^e would seem to indicate that the climate 

 of Britain was warmer in the Pleistocene 

 period than it now is ; but the presence 

 of the Glutton, as well as of some non-car- 

 nivorous Arctic animals, tends to the other 

 opinion, namely, that the climate of England 

 was sub-Arctic. Very probably the Cave Lion 

 and Hyaena were provided with thick woolly 

 fur, and so, like the Mantchurian Tiger and the 

 Northern Leopard (see pp. 34 and 42), enabled 

 to bear a degree of cold experienced by but few 

 of their relatives at the present day. 



In beds of the same age in South America 

 is found a true Cheetah, a species now confined 

 to the Old World. But the most wonderful 

 animal belonging to this period is the great Sabre- 

 toothed Tiger (Macliairodus), a gigantic animal, with canines six or eight inches long, and jagged at their 

 edges like a very fine saw. It would almost seem as if Dame Nature, in producing this terrible beast, had 

 actually got to the end of her tether in the matter of specialisation for carnivorous habits ; the canines 



SKULL OF MACHJERODI T S. (After Gaudry.) 





