Fig. 416.—Hyæna striata, striped hyena. Ileo-colic junction and cæcum; dried preparation. (Columbia University Museum, No. 56.)
Fig. 417.—Felis leo, lion, Ileo-colic junction and cæcum. (Columbia University Museum, No. 1516.)
Among the ailuroid carnivora, the hyæna and the lion occupy an isolated position in regard to the cæcum. Both of these animals possess a well-developed long cæcal pouch with blunt extremity (Figs. 416 and 417). They probably afford examples of a persistent ancestral common type from which the remaining carnivorous forms are derived by reduction of the cæcal apparatus in conformity with the food-habits of these animals. The cæcum of both the lion and hyæna resembles very closely the pouch of the herbivorous marsupials, such as Halmaturus or Didelphis (cf. [Figs. 348] and [350], [p. 205]).
IX. Order: Cheiroptera.
In the bats the alimentary canal is uniformly simple without cæcum and scarcely any differentiation between small and large intestine (Fig. 418).
Fig. 418.—Pteropus medius, Indian fruit-bat. Ileo-colon; dried preparation. (Columbia University Museum, No. 533.)