412 



QUADRUPEDS. 



FIG. 457.- SKULL OF TIGER. 



of the preceding quadrupeds, yet their diet is for the most part 

 confined to small animals, such as worms and insects, as the 

 general feebleness of their structure and the arrangement of their 

 teeth alike indicate. But in the Order upon the consideration 

 of which we are now about to enter, the sanguinary appetite is 

 conjoined with strength necessary for its gratification. The Car- 

 nivorous Quadrupeds, properly so called, are at once distinguish- 

 able by the possession of four large, long, and widely-separated 

 fangs, generally known by the appellation of canine or dog-tcctJi, 



the use of which is to seize and 

 hold fast their struggling prey: 

 between these there are six 

 smaller teeth, in the front of 

 each jaw, called incisors, while 

 the cheek-teeth are either en- 

 tirely constructed for cutting 

 and tearing, or have their 

 crowns more or less blunted. 

 They are more exclusively car- 

 nivorous in proportion as their 

 teeth are more completely tren- 

 chant ; and such as live also upon vegetable food may be recog- 

 nized by the bluntness of their grinders. Thus, in the cats, the 

 most bloodthirsty of the race, the cheek-teeth are flat and tri- 

 angular, and their edges cut like the blades of a pair of shears ; 

 whilst, on the other hand, the bears, most of which feed largely 

 on vegetable substances, have nearly all these teeth adapted for 

 bruising and crushing. 



The teeth next to the canines are named false molars ; to 

 these succeeds a tooth of great size, called a laccrator, and be- 

 hind these are others of smaller dimensions, which are generally 

 more or less blunted, called blunt molars. Those genera that are 

 provided with the fewest false molars will, of course, have their 

 jaws proportionately short, and consequently stronger and more 

 vice-like in their action. 



But, besides these differences in the teeth of the Larnivora, they 

 differ remarkably in the structure of their hinder feet. Some of 

 them, in walking, place the entire sole of the foot upon the ground, 

 and this part is destitute of hair, whilst others walk only upon the 

 tips of their toes, the hinder part of the foot or tarsus being raised 

 from the ground, and hairy : the former are called Plantigrade, 

 and the latter Digitigrade Carnivora; while a third division, 



