MAMMALS 



323 



overarched by a small fingerlike process. The trunk is 

 a wonderfully mobile and versatile organ. In it Cuvier 

 counted twenty thousand muscles, became discouraged, 

 but estimated the number to be forty thousand. With it 

 the elephant can lift a cannon or pick up a lozenge or 

 brush off a fly or uproot a tree. 



Flesh-eating Mammals (Ferce or Carnivora) 



The mammals of 

 the order, Carnivora, 

 are flesh-eating 

 tience the canines 

 and molars are well 

 developed. The skin 

 is well covered with 

 hair and all the 

 digits are provided 

 -with claws tvhich, in 

 many cases, are re- 

 tractile. 



If we have 

 observed closely, 

 we have seen that 

 the hoofed mam- 

 mals were distinctly 

 ]5l ant-eating, or 

 herbivorous ani- 

 mals. We now 

 come to a group of 

 animals that are 

 distinctly flesh-eat- 

 ing, or, as they are 



Fig. 211. — Raccc 



