eir
toes--they are the _Digitigrada_; the bears and allied forms on the
palms of their hands and soles of their feet, more or less, and thus
form the other two divisions, but there is another classification
which recommends itself by its simplicity and accuracy. Broadly
speaking, there are three types of land carnivores--the cat, the dog,
and the bear, which have been scientifically named _AEluroidea_ (from
the Greek _ailouros_, a cat); _Cynoidea_ (from _kuon_, a dog); and
_Arctoidea_ (from _arctos_, a bear). The distinction is greater
between the families of _Digitigrades_, the cat and dog, than between
the _Plantigrades_ and _Sub-plantigrades_, and therefore I propose to
adopt the following arrangement:--

I. ARCTOIDEA |_Plantigrades_.
|_Sub-plantigrades_.

II. AELUROIDEA |
|_Digitigrades_.
III. CYNOIDEA |

I may here remark that the Insectivora are in most cases plantigrade,
therefore the term is not an apposite one as applied to the bear and
bear-like animals only, but in treating of them under the term
_Arctoidea_ we may divide them again into _Plantigrades_ and
_Sub-plantigrades_.

ARCTOIDEA.

PLANTIGRADA.

_URSIDAE_.

The bears differ from the dogs and cats widely in form and manner,
and diet. The cat has a light springy action, treading on the tips
of its toes, a well-knit body glistening in a silky coat, often richly
variegated, "a clean cut," rounded face, with beautifully chiselled
nostrils and thin lips, and lives exclusively on flesh. The bear
shambles along with an awkward gait, placing the entire sole of his
foot on the ground; he has rough dingy fur, a snout like a pig's,
and is chiefly a vegetarian--and in respect to this last peculiarity
his dentition is modified considerably: the incisors are large,
tri-cuspidate; the canines somewhat smaller than in the restricted
carnivora; these are followed by three small teeth, which usually
fall out at an early period, then comes a permanent premolar of
considerable size, succeeded by two molars in the upper, and three
in the under jaw. The dental formula is therefore: Inc., 3--3/3--3;
can., 1--1/1--1; premolars, 4--4/4--4; molars, 2--2/3--3. In actual
numbers this formula agrees with that for the dogs; but the form of
the teeth is very different, inasmuch as the large premolars and the
molars have flat tuberculated crowns, constituting them true
grinders, instead of the trenchant shape of the cats, which is also,