ZOOLOGY OF OLAUS MAGNUS 



handsome beast. It has rich glossy brown fur and is 

 of respectable size, and quite one of the largest of the 

 Musteline carnivores which are closely related to the 

 bears but still more nearly to the lithe stoats, and the 

 aquatic otter. 



It walks about on the soles of the feet in the true bear 

 fashion, and this walk is in captivity agitated and rapid 

 as is the way with many captive carnivora, especially 

 the little ratel Mellivora, its near neighbour at the 

 Zoo, though not in Nature, as it is African and Indian. 

 The latter complicates its rapid walk to and fro by an 

 occasional somersault. The glutton has a short tail, 

 which is largely hidden by the thick fur, a truly bear- 

 like attribute. Like the polar bear, and perhaps for 

 similar reasons, our wolverene has hairy palms and 

 soles. Like other carnivora, especially of course the 

 American " essence pedlar " or skunk, the glutton 

 is provided with glands which secrete an abominably 

 smelling fluid, which can be shot to a distance, and is 

 probably a better safeguard than its teeth and claws, 

 against invasion of its rights. For though stories are 

 current of a highly spiced nature, it seems that the 

 ferocity of the glutton is much exaggerated. Not so, 

 however, its voracity, and its very name both in English 

 and in Latin (Gulo) is a testimony to accurate public 

 opinion. In his Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus 

 Olaus Magnus, Archbishop of Upsala, in the fourteen 

 hundreds, spoke concerning the glutton with no un- 

 certain note. " This animal," observed the archbishop 

 (in Latin), " is most voracious. When a body is dis- 

 covered it eats with such rapidity that its belly becomes 

 distended like a drum." Later on a freeish translation 

 is perhaps more advisable. The Latin may be thus 

 rendered: "The creature seeks some conveniently close 

 tree trunks between which it squeezes itself like an 

 orange and is then ready to commence anew. This 



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