CARNIVORA 67

the conditions of his existence and the work he has
to do.

CARNIVORA.—The order of carnivores is
another old group which must not have its name
taken too literally. It does not include all the flesh-
eaters ; and some of its members, notably among the
bears, are practically vegetarians. Speaking gene-
rally, however, the name is appropriate, for most of
the species prey on other animals and live on warm
flesh. In structure there is a great resemblance
among them all. Their lower jaw can only move
vertically, owing to the projecting process or condyle
being semi-cylindrical, and working in a deep
narrow, glenoid ‘ fossa’—or hollow—of corresponding
form. Like the potamogale, but unlike the rest of the
insectivores, their collar-bones are either absent or
represented by little splints embedded in the
muscles. Unlike, too, the majority of the insecti-
vores, the bones of the forearm are distinct, and
the fibula in the lower leg slender, though it is
always separated from the tibia. The wrist-bones,
too, are peculiar in having the lunar and scaphoid
all in one, and no central bone; and with regard to
this, it may be as well to explain that in the typical
wrist there are eight bones—(1) the scaphoid, so called
from its boat-shaped socket ; (2) the lunar, so called
from its crescent shape, both of these being in con-
nection with the radius ; (3) the cuneiform, or wedge-
shaped bone, connected by a ligament with the ulna;
and (4) the pisiform, or pea-shaped bone, developed in
the tendon and gliding over in front of the cunei-

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