NATURAL HISTORY. 
13 
SALOON.] 
and the base of the tail depressed, as the otter ( Lutra ), clawless otter 
(Aonyx ), which have nearly equal sized feet; the Pteronurce have 
large rounded hind feet, and a fin on each side of their tail; and the 
sea otters ( Enhydra ) have a short depressed tail and very large elon¬ 
gated hind feet; the latter have only four cutting teeth, like the seals, 
in their adult state. 
The family of Bears (Ursula, Cases 20 and 21) chiefly differs from 
the cats in the so-called carnivorous tooth being more bluntly tubercular, 
adapted for vegetable diet, and not distinguishable from the tubercular 
grinders; and the nose and lips are generally very mobile and the tongue 
elongated. Some, as the true bears, ( Ursina ,) have only one very large 
oblong tubercular grinder in the upper jaw. Their feet are very broad 
and short, as the bears ( Ursus and Danis), the sun bears ( Helarctos ), 
the sloth bear ( Prochilus ), and the sea bear (Thalarctos ), which 
differ in the form of the claws and the hairiness and baldness of the 
soles of their hind feet. The sloth and sun bear have the power of 
lengthening their lips, and have a very long tongue; the sea bear has 
the feet covered with hair, except on a few spots; the latter lives chiefly 
on the ice of the polar regions. The other genera have an elongated tail. 
The coati ( Nasua ) and theracoon ( Procyon) have large, oblong, squarish, 
transverse grinders. The nose is elongated and very mobile. The latter 
always wash their food before they eat it. The potto ( Cercoleptes) 
has the elongated tongue of the sun bears, but their head is rounded 
and small, and the grinders are small and roundish. The wah ( Ailurus ) 
differs from all the former in having the soles of the feet covered with 
hair, like the true weasels, and the face short and rounded; they are 
brilliantly coloured, and live in the snowy regions of Nepal. 
The remainder of the rapacious beasts have more or fewer than six 
cutting teeth in each jaw, generally the number is different in the two 
jaws, and the grinders are of only two sorts, false and tubercular. The 
section contains three families. 
The family of Moles (Talpim:, Case 22) have their grinders studded 
with sharp conical points. Their feet are short, and they place the whole 
sole of the foot on the ground when walking. They live principally 
on insects, and in cold climates they pass the winter, and in warm cli¬ 
mates the summer, in a torpid state; they have no caecum. 
The more typical kinds have very short strong fore feet armed with 
large claws, with which they dig holes for themselves, in which they 
live and breed, as the moles ( Talpa), which have a simple elongated 
muzzle, and six cutting teeth in the upper and eight in the lower jaw. 
The water moles ( Scalops ) have a depressed elongated muzzle. The 
golden moles ( Chrysochloris) have a simple nose with a transverse bald 
muffle, and they are peculiar for the hair of their bodies having a me¬ 
tallic gloss. The starnosed moles ( Rhinaster ) have an elongated 
muzzle, like the moles, but the end of it is surrounded with small beards, 
hence their name; they have been called Condylura , because it was be¬ 
lieved their tail was knotted, but this is only occasioned by the shrinking 
of the flesh in drying. 
The remainder of the genera of this family have the feet formed for 
walking, like the other rapacious beasts. Some have two long cutting teeth 
in front, larger than the rest, as the tupais ( Tupaia ), which have a 
broad tail fringed on the side like the squirrel’s, and like them live on 
