MELES LABRADORIA. 83 



The female parts of generation are as in the racoon, only there is no 

 knob on the tip of the labia, and the clitoris is entirely hid by a pre- 

 putium like the white bear's, which is also very rugous on the inside. 

 The external vagina was very red. 



The bag at the verge of the anns is pretty long, bnt at that half 

 which is next to the anus it is very thick, and covered with a very thick 

 glandular substance 1 . The racoon has a little of this. 



The Carcajou [Meles Labradoria, Sabine 2 ] . 



The body of this animal is long, especially the thorax, which is not 

 deep. Both the fore-legs and the hind are extremely moveable on their 

 first joints, as is also the scapula, by which means its movements 

 become very extensive in the motions of those parts, and [the animal is] 

 of course very active. The legs are short and strong, so that the belly 

 is almost flat on the ground. The hand or fore-foot is very much [like 

 that of] the bear, and has a considerable rotatory motion in it. The 

 hind-foot is broader ; the toes spread much, and are considerably webbed, 

 like the other ; therefore we may suppose it swims. The whole appear- 

 ance of the animal is something between the otter and bear ; not so flat 

 as the first, nor so thin and high off the ground as the other. 



The head is a good deal of the otter ; it is flat and wide, but rather 

 more bent than in that class of animals, being rather shorter. The 

 teeth are more of the lion's than most of that class of animals. Six 

 incisores, two euspidati, two breakers or squeezers, and two grinders 

 in each jaw 3 . 



The stomach is much as in common. The duodenum passes down on 

 the right, having a mesentery; then passes across behind the mesentery, 

 where its mesentery becomes not so broad; then, on the left, the- 

 mesentery becomes broader or longer, on which the jejunum and ileum 

 are attached. The gut passes up the right towards the root of the 

 mesentery, and crosses it on the anterior surface, as the duodenum passes 

 behind, having a shorter mesentery at this part ; and, when got to the 

 left side, it gets a longer or broader mesentery, and passes down forming 

 the rectum. 



1 [Home, Comp. Anat. i. p. 430.] 



2 [" Jam enim constat Ursum et Melem America, licet satis similes nostris, indole 

 tamen et specie distinctos esse; et forsan Gulo americanus non est varietas nostratis." 

 — Pallas, Zoographia Rosso-Asiatica, p. 9.] 



3 [This number applies only to the upper jaw : there are tliree ' breakers ' in the 

 lower jaw. The dental formula of Meles is : — i -^-. c -^, p j^, on -^-^ =36. 

 Sometimes the first premolar is present in the upper jaw. The carcajou differs in 

 the more carnassial character of the carnassial teeth, and a smaller size of the upper 

 true molar.] 



g2 



