. Cassell's natural history. Animals; Animal behavior. 98 , nisrom: niolai-s in the upper jaw, and tlie two last in tne lower, have become boad fxle " ; Tlie scissor-like cutting edgs has disappeared, and in place of it we have a hard crushing surfoce, raised into four cusps—two large external and two smaller internal ones. This has relation, of covirse, to the mixed character of the Dog's food. The sectorial molar of the lower jaw still, however, retains its distinctive chai'actei-s; its crown has much the same shape as in the Cat, but in addition possesses an extra
. Cassell's natural history. Animals; Animal behavior. 98 , nisrom: niolai-s in the upper jaw, and tlie two last in tne lower, have become boad fxle " ; Tlie scissor-like cutting edgs has disappeared, and in place of it we have a hard crushing surfoce, raised into four cusps—two large external and two smaller internal ones. This has relation, of covirse, to the mixed character of the Dog's food. The sectorial molar of the lower jaw still, however, retains its distinctive chai'actei-s; its crown has much the same shape as in the Cat, but in addition possesses an extra lobe, in the shape of a large heel-like process projecting from its hinder border, and formed by a modification of its posterior cupp. The Dog family have, as a rule, longish legs. They walk on the tip of their toes, like the. SKELETON Cats; but unlike the latter, their claws are not retractile. Curious to relate, however, tlie elastic ligament by which the drawing back of the feline claw is effected is present, but in so feeble a condition as to be quite incapable of antagonising the great flexor muscles. In consequence of this, the paw of a Dog is by no means suoh a perfect weapon as that of a Cat; and, as a matter of fact, the Dogs are distinguished from the Cats by their habit of always attacking the prey at once with their teeth, and never beginning the attack with a blow of the paw. In the matter of internal anatomy, the Dog family differ from all other Carnivores in possessirtg a large "blind gut," or ciecum. The intestines, which are proportionally longer tlian a Cat's, are, as usual, divided into large and small, and, at the place where the large and small intestines join one anothei-, there goes off a folded sac, communicatmg with the intestine at one end, but quite closed at the other, forming, in fact, a small The use of this curious appendage is proj>erly under- stood, nor why it should be so well developed in the Dog family, while
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjecta, booksubjectanimals
