CARNIVORA (caro, carnis, and voro,) an interesting and highly important group of the mammifera, constituting the typical order of that great division of the class which feed upon animal aliment. Whether the present group can with propriety be considered as en titled by its organization to the ordinal rank which we have assigned to it above, or whether it does not rather form a subdivision of a great order, answering nearly to the Carnassiers of Cuvier, is a question which, as it is variously viewed by different naturalists, may be safely left undecided in a work like the present, in which structure rather than arrangement is the principal object of research, and in which the nomenclature of a system is of little importance, compared with the developement of anatomical and physiological truth. The Carnassiers of Cuvier (excluding the Marsupiata, which may unhesitatingly be considered as a distinct order,) includes a natural and tolerably well defined assemblage of animals, to which the term ZOOPFIAGA may with propriety be applied as the classical equivalent to the French phrase of that distinguished zoologist ; but however the stricter rules of zoological arrangement may render it difficult to divide this group into the three orders of CH EI ROPTERA, INSECTI VORA) and CA RN 1VORA, it has appeared to the author of this essay as more convenient on the present occasion to assign that designation to each of these divisions, and to make the structure of each the subject of a separate article.
The characters of the Carnivora as distinct from the rest of the digitate animals possessing the three distinct classes of teeth, (which, be sides the other Zoophaga, include the Quadru mana and the Marsupiata,) are such as point them out as especially formed for the pursuit and destruction of vertebrate animals. They
possess in the upper and in the lower jaw six incisive teeth, a large, strong, and pointed ca nine tooth on each side, and molar teeth which partake in a greater or less degree of the charac ters. distinctive of the class, according to the habits of the different genera. These molars con sist of three distinct kinds: the anterior, which immediately follow the canine, are more or less pointed, and are termed false molars; the next class, formed especially for cutting in pieces the flesh on which the animals feed, are termed by M. Frederick Cuvier Carnassiers ; and the posterior are tuberculated. The proportion which these different classes of teeth bear to each other in number or developement, accords with the degree of the carnivorous propensity in the animal.
In agreement with these characters of the teeth, the feet are digitate, the toes furnished with claws, which in some are retractile ; the stomach is simple, the intestines are short, and the ccecum is either very small or altogether wanting.
The animals of this order differ in the form. and position of the posterior feet ; in some, hence termed plantigrade, the whole foot rests on the ground ; in others, called digitigrade, the toes only touch the ground, the heel being considerably raised. Of the former structure the bears exhibit the type, and the cats of the latter. A third and most remarkable form of the extremities is shown in the .Seal tribe, in which the anterior as well as the posterior feet are formed for swimming, being spread into fin like paddles.
The families of which this order is com posed are perhaps as follow :— 1. URSID/Ey typical genus Ursus, bear.