240 NATURAL HISTORY. 



There was subsequently found in the Malayan Peninsula, and I have seen one 

 specimen from Burma, a long-nosed squirrel (Rhinosciurus tujjaoides), which 

 closely resembles the tupaia. 



' However, I will bring home to you a still more familiar example in the case 

 of the so-called musk-rat — that most maligned and persecuted little creature 

 which I always encourage in my house, whilst other people destroy it wherever 

 it is found. This miscalled rat is a true shrew, utterly incapatle of gnawing 

 a hole through a door or box, aod therefore much mischief done by true rats is 

 wrorjgfolly laid to its charge ; it comes into your houses for an object which, 

 should gain it thanks and protection, and not the violent death it usually meets ; 

 it comes to destroy cockroaches, centipedes, scorpions, and other creeping hor- 

 lors, and its only offensiveness lies in its powerful odour, which however it 

 Only emits when frightened or hurt. I have let one run quietly five times over 

 a clean pocket handkerchief without any smell being perceptible afterwards' 

 and the old story of its tainting bottles of beer and wine by simply running 

 over them is a myth. In the old days, when beer and wine were bottled largely 

 in this country, muskratty liquor was common. The bottles were not pi )perly 

 cleaned ; but how seldom do you now hear of the complaint ; it is one of the old 

 Anglo-Indian stories on a pir with the cobra in each boot and a scorpion in 

 every keyhole, to say nothing of tigers sitting and licking their li r s in the back 

 veraudah waiting for the baby ! I have had tame musk-rats and found them 

 them smell less than other pecs, certainly not so bad as hedgehogs. At Nagpore 

 a wild one would come out at my call and take grasshoppers from my fingers. 



" The most interesting links in the carnivora are those between the cat and 

 dog. The best known is that of the oheeta, of which I have got here a rough 

 sketch ; but he is a true cat, his dentition and internal anatomy &.re strictly 

 feline, though his claws are not retractile and his form is somewhat dog-like > 

 with long legs and thin body, so he can hardly be called a liuk. We must go 

 from the cats to the civets and then on from the civets to dogs. There is 

 a curious animal in Madagascar called Cryptoprocta ferox, which is a perfect link 

 between the cats and the civets. It is semi-plantigrade, keeping a large 

 portion of the sole of the foot to the ground, and not walking on the tips 

 of its toes bke the cats, yet it possesses retractile claws. Tne skull partakes 

 of the characteristics of both families, and the teeth differ only from the 

 cats in having one more premolar. It is a very savage little creature, muscu- 

 lar and active, and so was appropriately termed ferox. The civets are con- 

 nected with the hjasna by the aard-wolf, a Sjuth African animal about the 

 size of a jackall, and in general appearance like a young striped h}8ena. It 

 is called aard or earth wolf from its habit of burrowing in the ground. The 

 hyeenas again are linked on to the dogs by the Lycaon or Cape hunting-dog, 

 or hyrona-dog. Here is a rough sketch of one which shews the likeness to 

 both families: the skull is dog-like, but the animal has only four toes on eaoh 

 forefoot instead of five. 



""We come now to the Bear family, and we must go back te the cats for a link. 

 No two animals could be more dissimilar than the cat and the bear. Not 

 only are there internal anatomical differences but exernally they are unlike 

 the one is light and springy in action, the other heavy and shuffling. The 



