In the vertebral column the atlas always has large wing-like processes; the spine of the axis vertebra has a long antero-posteriorly elongated form. The transverse processes of the fourth to the sixth cervicals are, as a rule, double. These features, however, though characteristic of the Carnivora are not by any means distinctive. The true sacrum consists of but a single vertebra to which the ilia are attached; but at most two other vertebrae are fused with this. The clavicle is always small and sometimes quite rudimentary, or even absent. The spine of the scapula is well developed, and almost equally divides the {389} surface of that bone. The digits of the Carnivora are mostly five, and are never less than four. The mode of progression may be digitigrade or plantigrade, and the intermediate semidigitigrade mode of walking also occurs. The brain in all Carnivora is large and well convoluted. The arrangement of the convolutions is characteristic. There are three or four gyri disposed round each other, of which the lowest surrounds the Sylvian fissure. The stomach in these creatures is always simple in form, without {390} subdivisions. The caecum is never large, and may be, as in the Bear tribe, completely absent. [Illustration] FIG. 192.--Brain of Dog. A, Ventral; B, dorsal; C, lateral aspect. _B.ol_, Olfactory lobe; _Cr.ce_, crura cerebri; _Fi.p_, great longitudinal fissure; _HH_, _HH_^1, lateral lobes of cerebellum; _Hyp_, hypophysis; _Med_, spinal cord; _NH_, medulla oblongata; _Po_, pons Varolii; _VH_, cerebral hemispheres; _Wu_, middle lobe (vermis) of cerebellum; _I-XII_, cerebral nerves. (From Wiedersheim's _Comparative Anatomy_.) The distribution of the Carnivora is world-wide, excluding only the Australian region, if, as seems probable, the Dingo of that region is an introduced species. The most striking features in their distribution are perhaps the following:--There are no Bears in the Ethiopian region or in Madagascar, and but a single species in the Neotropical. The only Carnivora in Madagascar are the Viverridae, and of the seven genera there found six are peculiar. The Procyonidae are nearly entirely New World in range; out of sixteen genera of Mustelidae only five are New World, and only two of those are peculiar to the American continent. The Hyaenidae are limited to the Old World.