STOATS AND POLECATS 
Neither these nor the remaining section of the car- 
nivora, the great tribe of Arctoidea, are prevalently 
spotted or striped in coloration. The Arctoidea in- 
clude not only the true bears, of which the European 
bear, the grizzly, the Syrian bear, and the polar bear, 
as well as some others inhabit the bear dens in plenty, 
but a variety of small creatures, which are referable 
to two distinct families, the mustelidce and the pro- 
cyonide. The former contains not only the weasels 
and stoats and polecats, but also the badgers, glutton, 
the American grison and tayra, the martens and sables, 
the ratel with its grey back, black under-surface and 
hurried walk, the skunk or “ essence pedlar ’’ of North 
and South America, and the otters. The procyonide 
is a family made for the reception of the raccoons, the 
prehensile-tailed kinkajou, also of South America, the 
coati with its pig-like snout and ringed tail, and 
the panda of the Himalayas. The Arctoidea are less 
decisively Carnivora than the Aeluroidea or Cynoidea. 
The teeth are largely flat-crowned, and suitable for 
crushing rather than tearing, a fact which goes, as has 
been already said, with an often principally vegetable 
diet ; they walk upon the soles of their feet instead of 
upon the toes, and there are other anatomical char- 
acters, which show that the group is one which is, so 
far as the living representatives are concerned, to be 
sharply marked off from other carnivora. 
THE LION 
We have constantly met with persons who have the 
impression that while the tiger is an undoubted cat, 
the lion has more of the dog nature. This quite 
erroneous idea is probably to be traced to the mane, 
and to the certainly leonine but also almost New- 
foundland-dog-like head. The lion, however, is quite 
a diagrammatic cat, with the usual retractile claws, 
ES 
