328 



ANATOMY OF VERTEBRATES. 



and with a flat inner side, against which the cutting tooth, m l, in 

 the lower jaw works obliquely. Behind, and on the inner side of 

 the upper tooth, p 4, there is a small tubercular tooth. The feline 

 dental formula is — 



3.3 



z 3.3 ; c i.i 



1.1 3.3 



W 



2.2 ' 



1.1 

 • u = 30. 



A glance at the long sub-compressed, trenchant, and sharp- 

 pointed canines, suffices to appreciate their peculiar adaptation to 

 seize, to hold, to pierce, and lacerate a struggling prey. The 

 co-adaptations of jaws and skull are given in vol. ii. p. 505. 

 The use of the small pincer-shaped incisor teeth is to gnaw the 

 soft, gristly ends of the bones, and to tear and scrape off the 

 tendinous attachments of the muscles and periosteum. The 

 compressed trenchant blades of the sectorial teeth play vertically 

 upon each other's sides like the blades of scissors, serving to cut 

 and coarsely divide the flesh ; and the form of the joint of the 

 lower jaw almost restricts its movement to the vertical direction, 

 up and down. The wide and deep zygomatic arches, fig. 260, 27, 



261 



and the high crests 



of bone upon the 

 skull, ib. 3, 7, con- 

 cur in completing the 

 carnivorous physiog- 

 nomy of this most 

 formidable existing 

 species of the feline 

 tribe. 



The penultimate 

 tooth in the upper 

 jaw, fig. 260, p 4, and 

 the last tooth in the 

 lower jaw, ib. m l, 

 were denominated by 

 F. Cuvier ' dent car- 

 nassiere,' which has 

 been rendered 'dens 

 sectorius,' the ( secto- 

 rial,' or scissor-tooth. 

 It preserves its cha- 

 racteristic form only 

 in the strictly flesh- 

 feeding genera, in which is seen the part called the ( blade,' and 

 that called the ' hump ' or tubercle. In Felis the lower sectorial 



Deciduous dentition, Young Lion. 



