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to resist large doses of Prussic acid. — Moles are extremely voracious. Their 

 appetite for food, says St. Hilaire, amounts to actual phrensy : — 



" When kept for a time in a state of abstinence they become outrageous, and will dart with 

 violence upon whatever prey is then presented, — plunging their heads into the abdomen of birds 

 and other animals, and satiating themselves with blood. They have been observed to refuse 

 Toads, but to seize upon Frogs with avidity. With such violent propensities it may be easily 

 conceived that they soon die when debarred from food. At the same time their appetites are not 

 entirely carnivorous ; at least several authors allege that they occasionally eat various tender and 

 succulent roots, and the bulbs of Colchicum. Though deemed very injurious in gardens, and per- 

 secuted by farmers even in the open grounds, they do not want advocates who espouse their cause 

 as useful agents in the economy of Nature ; and their undoubted destruction of grubs and Mole 

 crickets must prove beneficial to Agriculture. The female, indeed, while furnishing her nursery, 

 is a somewhat too active reaper,— 402 young stalks of Corn, with the leaves entire, having been 

 counted in her nuptial chamber." — p. 104. 



The animals called Tanrecs (Ce?itenes), and which are partially covered with 

 prickles, are said to become torpid in summer — an anomaly, certainly, to be 

 accounted for on no known principles. Speaking of the food of Bears, we learn 

 (p. 105) that " Sir Stamford Raffles possessed a Malay Bear (Ursus Malay- 

 anus) which gave proof of its refined appetite, by refusing to eat anything but 

 mangosteens, or to drink any other wine than champagne." 



In discussing the nomenclature of the Weasel family, our author justly remarks, 

 that " whenever a Linnsean genus is raised to the rank of a family, the original 

 generic title should still be retained as indicative of one of the restricted groups." 

 To this we beg to move an amendment, viz. that that restricted genus be invari- 

 bly the typical one. 



Into the investigation respecting the original stock of the Dog we cannot enter, 

 further than to observe that our author believes it to have been either the Wolf 

 or the Jackal, or perhaps both. Professor Bell is in favour of the former animal. 

 It is said that Wolves kept amongst Dogs soon learn to bark, and, on the other 

 hand, that Dogs, run wild, lose the talent in an equally short time. 



Bruce informs us that about Libanus, Syria, Northern Asia, and the vicinity 

 of Algiers, Hysenas live chiefly on large succulent bulbous roots, especially those 

 of Fritillarias, &c, and that he has known large patches of fields turned up by 

 them in searching for Onions and other plants. He adds, that these were selected 

 with such care, that, after having been peeled, if any small decayed spot became 

 visible, they were refused. The above-mentioned author one day locked up a 

 Goat, a kid, and a lamb, with a Barbary Hyaena which had fasted, and in the 

 evening he found the intended victims not only alive but quite uninjured. " He 

 repeated the experiment, however, on another occasion, during the night, with a 

 young Ass, a Goat, and a Fox, and the next morning he was, not unreasonably, 

 astonished to find the whole of them not only killed, but actually eaten, with the 

 exception of some of the Ass's bones ! This was pretty well for an animal so 

 curious in bulbous roots." (pp. 119 — 20). 



