CARNIVOROUS, in zoology, an epi thet generally applied to animals of every description that subsist for the most part, or entirely, on animal food. In a more limited sense we understand, by carnivo rous animals, those only of a savage and voracious nature, assimilating in our ideas some instinctive ferocity of character in the manners of those creatures, when seeking and attacking their prey, as well as actually feeding on flesh. We natu rally consider, for this reason, among the principal carnivorous animals, the lion, the tiger, and the wolf; or among birds, the eagle and the kite; with a host of other rapacious creatures, upon which nature has bestowed pre-eminent advan tages of courage, strength, and arms, to aid them in seizing upon, and tearing in to pieces, those animals on which they feed: they have either formidable canine teeth or fangs; claws or talons ; the qua drupeds possessing both, and the birds the latter.- Fishes, with very few excep tions, are carnivorous, but their only of fensive weapons are the teeth, or in some species the spines and prickles disposed on various parts of the body. Quadru peds, that subsist both on flesh and vege tables, are more or less deficient with re spect to those characters, by Fhich carni vorous quadrupeds are known ; and those still more so that subsist entirely on roots, barks, fruits, grass, or other vegetables ; the brutx have no cutting teeth either in the upper or lower jaw ; the pecorx have them only in the lower jaw ; and the front teeth of the bellulx are obtuse. The food of those animals is vegetables. See Meormar.rA.
Carnivorous animals are characterised both by their internal organization, and their capacity and inclination for the de struction of their prey ; their teeth up sharp and pointed, even though situated in the back part of the mouth ; and these teeth denominated canine are so long in most of the beasts of prey, that they pass a considerable way beyond each other when the jaws are closed. The distribu
tion of the enamel, which is confined to the superficies of the teeth, renders them extremely hard, and this circumstance, joined to an extraordinary bulk of those muscles employed in raising the lower jaw, gives to carnivorous quedrupeds the power of breaking the strongest bones.
The rapacious birds are distinguished by a sharp hard bill, furnished on each side with a pointed process, by which they are enabled to tear asunder the parts of the animals they feed upon. As the digestion of animal substances is ac complished in a short time, the stomach of the carnivorous tribes has a simple fi gure, without any processes or separations of its cavity, to retain its contents, or to delay their passage into the intestines ; and as animal food furnishes hut little ex crement, the intestinal canal is short, and either totally unprovided with those di latations which are so remarkable in ve getable eaters, or possesses them only in a slight degree.
Carnivorous animals are further distin guished by the extraordinary strength of their members, which are- commonly fur nished with sharp claws ; these are so contrived, both in the beasts of prey and the accipitrine birds, that they turn in wards by the flexion of the limbs, or the action of seizing any thing, and are re tracted by the extension of the toes : thus giving facility and certainty to the cap ture and retention of fugitive animals. The senses of vision and smell are particu larly acute in the carnivorous tribes, as it is by means of them that they discover or seek out their prey.
Carnivorous animals arc usually cruel and treacherous in their dispositions ; they are even unsocial with respect to their own species; and hence it is that their numbers are so few, in comparison to that of the graminivoroqs kind : if it were not for this wise ordinance of na ture, the defenceless orders of animals would soon be devoured, and the car nivorous would become the prey of each other.