54 2 The History ^/ANIMALS.

stiort, thick, and in a manner shapeless: the claws are very firmly united to the ex-tremities of the toes; it has no tail, but yet it has a lengthened os coccygis : the bodyis, in reality, slender, though it appears enormously bulky, under that vast load offur with which it it is covered.

The bear is a native of America, and of many of the northern parts of Europe .Toward the pole it is very large and white; in other places it is smaller, and of ablack or rusty brown. All the writers on animals have named it, and all under thecommon name Urfus.

Ursus cauda elongata.

The TJrsus , with an elongated tail.

This creature grows to the size of a large mastiff-dog, or more, and is bulky, inproportion: the head is long, of an oval form, and narrow; the eyes are small; thenostrils are large, and the mouth is furnished in a very formidable manner with teeth :the legs are short, but x they are remarkably thick; the feet are large, and are spreadupon the ground in walking; the creature treading upon the heel as the human spe-cies, not in a more raised manner, on the anterior part of the foot, as the rest of thequadrupeds.

This is frequent in the northern parts of Europe . Wormius has described it.

F E L I S.

T HE fore-teeth of the Felis are small, obtuse, and equal: the tongue is armedwith a kind of spiculæ, which have their points bent backwards: the feet areformed for climbing, and the claws may be drawn back at the creature’s pleasure,

Felis cauda elongata floccosa , collo piltato.

The Felis , with an elongatedfloccofe tail y 3Cf)C JLlUXii

and a mane on the neck.

This is the strongest and the fiercest of all quadrupeds: it is taller than the largestmastiff, and more bulky, but the fore-part is over big, in proportion to the hinder,where it is lank, and wants that majesty of appearance it has in front.

The head is large, and the breast broad; the bigness of the head is owing to thegreat quantity of muscular flesh which covers the skull, and to the breadth of the jaw-,bones: the width of the breast is only apparent; the breast is, in reality, narrowerand more compressed than in the common dog, but the quantity of long hair thathangs over this, gives it the external breadth : the neck is very thick, stiff, and rigid :the antients supposed, that it consisted in the skeleton of one continued bone, but thatis not truth, it is formed of vertebra or joints as regularly as in other animals ; onlythe fpinose apophyses of those joints are longer than in other animals, and the liga-ments by which they are fastened to one another remarkably firm. It has been a vul-gar opinion also, that the bones are solid, and have no cavity, but this is also an er-ror ; the bones of the legs are indeed remarkably thick, but they have the naturalcavity, and have marrow in it, as in other animals.

The tongue is very long and large, and is all the way covered with a kind of spi-culæ ; these are hollow at their base, sharp at the ends, and all point backwards ortoward the throat: the heart of many creatures of the fiercer kinds is small, but inthe lion it is remarkably large; the whole structure of the creature is formed forstrength : the legs are vastly thick and strong ; the muscles of the whole body vast andtough ; the claws are of a surprising length and thickness, and, when they are not ex-erted for service, are drawn back in a very surprising manner, so that they scarce ap-pear : the eyes are large and fierce, and the teeth are very long and terrible : the fur