217 



Supplement on the Carnivora. 



Quitting the insectivora, we come to those races that are 

 more or less decidedly carnivorous ; that will prey upon 

 animals of a larger size, or gorge on carrion. Many of 

 them unite, to the sanguinary appetite for flesh, the most 

 cruel and unmitigated ferocity ; while others exhibit little or 

 nothing of the murderous instinct, except under the goad- 

 ing influence of indomitable hunger. Some also subsist much 

 more exclusively on flesh than others, while many are found 

 capable of being supported almost entirely on a vegetable 

 diet. Among these last, are some of the first species which 

 will come immediately under our review, in the brief addi- 

 tions which we shall make to the text, on the family of the 



Plantigrades. 



Among those, the first genus is that of the Ursi or Bears, 

 and the first of which we shall speak, pursuing the order of 

 the text, is the Brown Bear of Europe, or as it is sometimes 

 called, the Brown Bear of the Alps and of Norway, the 

 Ursus Arctos of Linnaeus. 



The Bears, with a brown fur, approaching more or less to 

 black, on the one side, and, on the other hand, to fawn, or 

 even a fairer hue, are so very numerous, and have been so 

 much confounded together, that it is impossible to decide 

 whether they belong to many, or are only varieties of a 

 single species. All the critical discussions which have been 

 entered into, with the view of throwing light upon this 

 question, have proved nothing but the impossibility of at- 

 taining the proposed object. Authors are not agreed upon 

 the point, many even contradict themselves, and recent 

 observations, have not been sufficiently accurate or multi- 

 plied, to reconcile these conflicting authorities. Brown 

 Bears appear to have been found in all parts of Europe and 



