t44 On an Ichneumon hrouglt from EgjpK 



has been here faid, wUI it be aflerted that this is not the cafe? 

 By no means ; for there is no oppofing fafts. 



BufTon in his defcription of this animal exclaims againft 

 tionienclators and generic denominations. I know that 

 fcience will make htt'e pro^refs when people are prejudiced 

 in favour of their fj^ftems ; but there are certain characters 

 fo (triking in fome animals that no error can be committed 

 in claffing them. He reproaches Linnaeus with having 

 made the ichneumon at fir(t a badger, then a ferret j yet it 

 certainly belongs to neither of thele fpecles. 



Had he obferved that fkin or fort of fins which it has on 

 its feet, he would certainly have clafled it among the amphi- 

 bious quadrupeds after the catlors and beavers, which have a 

 limilar membrane between their toes. Klein calls it lufra 

 ^gypti*; but he dues not fpeak of fins. Befides, as the 

 ichneumons frequent the banks of the rivers in Egypt, where 

 they fearcli in the fand for the eggs of the crocodile, of 

 which they are exceedingly foyd, or go in queft of thofe fer- 

 pents which the Nile leaves among the mud after its inun- 

 dations, they muft be obhged to crofs, by fwimming, fome 

 arms of the river or fome canals in order to find their prey. 

 For this reafon nature has provided them with fins, and the 

 conformation of the eye induces me to believe that they 

 nmit alfo fcarch for their food in the night-time. To this 

 fafil I fliall add the decided tafte which the individual in 

 queftion has for fifli, which feems to prove that the ichneu- 

 mon in its wild ftate eats this food. 



As this animal will foon be at Paris, you will be enabled 

 to examine it yourfelf, and to verify my obfervatlons. I have 

 no doubt that others will be brought from Egypt: you can 

 examine whether the peculiarities 1 have defcribed be com- 

 mon to all ichneumons, or belong only to fome families. 



If this animal fliould uniorlunatolv die before it arrives at 

 Paris, for it has fuffered a great deal by the change of cli- 

 mate, and thefe animals, belidcs, do not live to a great age, 

 you will fee the beautiful plfture of it which M. Aimel 

 Cuufed to be executed by M. Peier, an excellent artlft in this 

 department, who has reprefented it with the grealeft exaft- 

 nefs poffible. Two figures of it are delineated under two 

 points of view. M. Peter kept it at his houfe for a fortnight, 

 to ftudy its deportment and attitudes, in order that he might 

 tie able to give a correft reprcfcntation of it. 



* De ^uadrup. p. 66, 



XXIII. Of 



