592 CARNIVORA 
“A hunter and his family, having left their lodge unguarded 
during their absence, on their return found it completely gutted— 
the walls were there, but nothing else. Blankets, guns, kettles, axes, 
cans, knives, and all the other paraphernalia of a trapper’s tent had 
vanished, and the tracks left by the beast showed who had been the 
thief. The family set to work, and, by carefully following up all his 
paths, recovered, with some trifling exceptions, the whole of the lost 
property.” The pairing season occurs in March, and the female, 
secure in her burrow, produces her young, four or five at a birth, 
in June or July. In defence of these she is exceedingly bold, and 
the Indians, according to Coues, “have been heard to say that they 
would sooner encounter a she-bear with her cubs than a carcajou (the 
Indian name of the glutton) under the same circumstances.” 
Fossil remains of the Wolverene are found in cavern and other 
Pleistocene deposits in various parts of Europe. 
Suborder PINNIPEDIA. 
The Eared-Seals, Walruses, and Seals differ from the rest of 
the Carnivora mainly in the structure of their limbs, which are 
modified for aquatic progression,—the two proximal segments being 
very short and partially enveloped in the general integument of the 
body; while the third segment, especially in the hinder extremities, 
is elongated, expanded, and webbed. There are always five well- 
developed digits on each limb. In the hind limb the two marginal 
digits (first and fifth) are stouter and generally longer than the 
others. The teeth also differ from those of the more typical 
Carnivora. The incisors are always fewer than 3. The cheek 
series consists generally of four premolars and one molar of very 
uniform characters, with never more than two roots, and with 
conical, more or less compressed, pointed crowns, which may have 
accessory cusps, placed before or behind the principal one, but 
are never broad and tuberculated ; and there is no differentiated 
carnassial tooth. The milk-teeth are very small and simple, and 
are shed or absorbed at a very early age, usually either before or 
within a few days after birth. The brain is relatively large; the 
cerebral hemispheres being broad in proportion to their length, 
with numerous and complex convolutions. There is a very short 
cecum. The kidneys are divided into numerous distinct lobules. 
There are no Cowper’s glands. The mammz are either two or 
four, and abdominal in position. No clavicles. Tail always very 
short. Eyes very large and exposed, with flat cornea. 
The animals of this group are all aquatic in their mode of life, 
spending the greater part of their time in the water, swimming and 
diving with great facility, feeding mainly on fish, crustaceans, and 
other marine animals, and progressing on land with difficulty. 
