trenchant cutting teeth which work up and down, the edges sliding
past each other just like a pair of scissors; the other has flat
crowned molars adapted for triturating the roots and herbage on which
it feeds. A skull of an old bear which I have has molars of which
the crowns are worn almost smooth from attrition. In the most
carnivorous forms the tubercular molars are almost rudimentary.

[Figure: Dentition of Tiger and Indian Black Bear]

The skull exhibits peculiar features for the attachment of the
necessary powerful muscles. The bones of the face are short in
comparison with the _cranial_ portion of the skull (the reverse of
the _Herbivores_); the strongly built zygomatic arch, the roughened
ridges and the broad ascending ramus of the lower jaw, all afford
place for the attachment of the immense muscular development. Then
the hinge of the jaw is peculiar; it allows of no lateral motion,
as in the ruminants; the _condyle_, or hinge-bolt of a tiger's jaw
(taken from the largest in my collection), measures two inches, and
as this fits accurately into its corresponding (glenoid) cavity,
there can be no side motion, but a vertical chopping one only. The
skeleton of a typical carnivore is the perfection of strength and
suppleness. The tissue of the bones is dense and white; the head small
and beautifully articulated; the spine flexible yet strong. In those
which show the greatest activity, such as the cats, civets and dogs,
the spinous processes, especially in the lumbar region, are greatly
developed--more so than in the bears. These serve for the attachment
of the powerful muscles of the neck and back. The clavicle or
collar-bone is wanting, or but rudimentary. The stomach is simple;
the intestinal canal short; liver lobed; organs of sight, hearing,
and smell much developed.

Now we come to the divisions into which this group has been separated
by naturalists. I shall not attempt to describe the various systems,
but take the one which appears to me the simplest and best to fit
in with Cuvier's general arrangement, which I have followed. Modern
zoologists have divided the family into two great groups--the
_Fissipedia_ (split-feet) or land Carnivora, and the _Pinnipedia_
(fin-feet) or water Carnivora. Of the land Carnivora some
naturalists have made the following three groups on the
characteristics of the feet, _viz_., _Plantigrada_, _Sub-plantigrada_
and _Digitigrada_. The dogs and cats, it is well known, walk on th