154 
VEIITEBRATA. 
connection with tlie habits of tlie animals, and always corresponds witli other important charac- 
ters, the differences observed in the structure of these extremities are of great value in the dis- 
crimination of the families, and have even been employed in the primary division of the order 
into groups. 
The most predaceous species are possessed of extraordinary activity ; their bodies are light 
and muscular ; their legs are long, and their short toes alone are applied to the ground : they 
walk, as we should say, on tip-toe, and they are accordingly called Digitigrada. Those species 
which are intended for a more or less vegetable diet, are heavier and endowed with far less 
agility ; their toes are longer, and they apply the whole foot, including the metatarsus and tarsus, 
to the ground in walking : these are denominated Plcmtigrada. These two groups, however, 
shade off almost insensibly into one another, and some naturalists have proposed the formation 
of an intermediate group, containing those Carnivora in which a portion of the sole is applied to 
the ground, under the name of Semi-jAantigrada. 
Among the fossil remains of animals, those of various species of Carnivora are abundant, espe- 
cially those of the bear and hyena. The bones of the latter have been discovered in heaps in 
the caverns of Northern Europe, thus showing that in some remote geologi(?al era, the climate of 
that part of the world was adapted to animals essentially tropical in their nature and habits. 
EUROPEAN BBAE. 
THE BEAES: ITESIDJE. 
Genus BEAR : Ursus. — Of the bears there are many kinds, varying greatly in some of their 
characteristics; we shall, however, notice them in one group. They are found in various parts 
of the world, yet no species is met with in Australia, and it has not been ascertained to exist in 
Africa. Cuvier held that it was not a native of that country ; but Ehrenberg says : " We our- 
selves have seen in the mountains of Abyssinia, and therefore in Africa itself, an animal most 
like to a bear, and hunted it repeatedly, but in vain. It is called by the natives KarraiP He 
then goes on to state, that he can give to those who are interested in the geographical distri- 
bution of the bear, " true tidings of a blackish, plantigrade wild beast most like unto a bear," in 
the mountains of Abyssinia. It seems probable, therefore, that a species of bear is a native of the 
high mountainous regions of Eastern Africa. 
In Asia and in Europe, as well as America, the species are widely distributed. The positive 
qualities of these beasts were likely to make them objects of attention, and hence we find them 
spoken of in the histories of remote ages. The she-bears which came out of the wood, " and 
