MAMMALS 



323 



overarched by a small fingerlike i)rocess. The trunk is 

 a wonderfully molnle 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 oil a fiy or ui)root a tree. 



Flksh-eating 



Th.e viammals of 

 the order, Carnivora, 

 a r e fie s h -eat i n g 

 hence the canines 

 and molars are ivell 

 developed. Tlieskin 

 is well covered loith 

 hair and all the 

 digits are provided 

 with claws u-hich, in 

 many cases, are re- 

 tractile. 



If we have 

 observed closely, 

 we have seen that 

 the hoofed mam- 

 mals were distinctly 

 plant-eating, or 

 herbivorous a n i- 

 mals. We now 

 come to a group of 

 animals that arc 

 distinctly flesh-eat- 

 ing, or, as they are 



M.VMMALS (FercE or Carnivora) 



Fig. 211. — Raccoon. 



