THE CARNIVOBA. 



293 



Order 11. Carnivora (Ferce). — The bear, cat, tiger, and 

 lion reciill tlie leading forms of this order. Tlie skull 

 (Fig. 321) is massive, though the head is small or of mod- 

 erate size; the teeth are all well developed, esjDecially the 

 canines; the molars usually have two or three roots, and 

 the feet have large claws. The stomach is simple. The 

 cerebral hemispheres of the lower carnivores have usually 

 but three distinct convolutions, while the latter are much 

 more numerous and complicated, the brain itself being 

 broader in the aquatic forms {Pinnipedia). The group 

 is divided into two sub-orders, i.e., the Pinnipedia or seals. 



Fig. 323.— Rough Seal (Phoca hispida) . From NordenskiSld. 



and the land species (Fissi^Jedia). In the former group 

 the feet are webbed, the toes being connected; the wrist 

 and foot only ])rojecting beyond the skin of the body, and 

 there are no external ears, or only small ones. 



The walrus (Fig. 323), the seals (Fig. 323), and the 

 eared seals or sea-lions {Otariidce) are the types of the 

 aquatic Carnivores; the sea-lions can walk on all fours, and 

 in certain peculiarities of the skull they resemble the bears. 



Of the terrestrial normal Carnivora, the raccoon, coati, 

 Cercoleptes, and bear, together with a number of extinct 

 forms, are the more generalized or lower types. They are 



