72 MAMMALIA. 



gentle manner, the animal would instantly spring at it. I could see 

 that, in running along the floor, it stopped the moment its whiskers 

 touched anything ; and often, when at full speed, it would turn aside 

 just before reaching an object against which it seemed about to strike, 

 and which it certainly had not seen. Unless enraged by being 

 teazed. it endeavored to smell every new object with which its 

 whiskers came in contact, turning its long flexible snout with great 

 facility for this purpose. 



" My caged specimens, both male and female, exhibited great 

 pugnacity. When I touched one several times with a stick, it would 

 become much enraged, snapping and crying out angrily. When 

 attacked by a meadow-mouse (Arvicola scalopsoides) confined in a 

 cage with it one fought fiercely ; and though it did not pursue its 

 adversary when the latter moved off, neither did it ever retreat ; but 

 the instant the mouse came close, it sprang at him, apparendy not 

 guided in the least by sight. It kept its nose and whiskers constandy 

 moving from side to side, and often sprang forward with an angry 

 cry, when the mouse was not near, as if deceived in thinking it had 

 heard or felt a movement in that direction. In fighting, it did not 

 spring up high, nor attempt to leap upon its adversary, as the mouse, 

 but jerked itself along, stopping firmly, with the fore-feet well forward, 

 and the head high. On coming in contact with the mouse, it 

 snapped at him, and, though it sometimes rose on its hind-feet in 

 the struggle, I did not observe that it used its fore-feet as weapons 

 of offence, like the arvicolae. Its posture, when on guard, was always 

 with the feet spread and firmly braced, and the head held with the 

 snout pointing upwards, and the mouth and chin forward, in which 

 position its eyes would have been of no use, could it have seen. 

 The motions of this animal, when angry, are characterized by a pe- 

 culiar firmness ; the muscles appear to be held very rigid, while the 

 movements are made by quick energetic jerks. Short springs, either 

 backward, forward, or sidewise, appear to be made with equal readi- 

 ness. 



