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THE URVA, OR CRAB-EATING ICHNEUMON. 



truly or not that when it attacks a snake it employs a ruse similar to that which is often 

 used by a horse when it objects to being saddled. It is said to puff up its body, and to induce 

 the snake to twine itself round its inflated person. It then suddenly contracts itself, slips 

 from the reptile's coils, and darts upon its neck. There is some foundation for this assertion 

 in the fact that the Garangan, in common with others of the same genus, does possess the 

 power of inflating and contracting its body with great rapidity ; so much so, indeed, that 

 during life it is not easy to measure the creature. 



Although it is tolerably susceptible of education, it is rarely kept tame by the natives, 

 because it is liable to occasional fits of rage, and when thus excited can inflict very painful 

 wounds with its sharp teeth. Moreover, it is too fond of poultry to be trusted near the hen- 

 roosts. 



THE URVA is easily distinguished from the preceding and the following animals by the 

 narrow stripe of long white hairs that runs from the angle of the mouth to the shoulders, con- 

 trasting very decidedly with the grayish-brown tint of the rest of the fur. Some very faintly 



URVA, OR CRAB-EATING ICHNEUMON. Herpestes cancritorm. 



marked darker bars are drawn on the body, and the tail is marked with three or four faint 

 transverse bars. This member is more bushy at the base than towards the extremity. The 

 feet and legs are of a uniform dark tint. 



THE ICHNEUMONS appear to be the very reptiles of the mammalian animals, in form, 

 habits, and action, irresistibly reminding the spectator of the serpent. Their sharp and 

 pointed snout, narrow body, short legs, and flexible form, permit them to insinuate themselves 

 into marvellously small crevices, and to seek and destroy their prey in localities where it 

 might well deem itself secure. There are many species of the genus Herpestes, or "creeper," 

 one of which, the Garangan, has already been mentioned. 



The common Ichneumon, or Pharaoh's Rat, as it is popularly but most improperly termed, 

 is plentifully found in Egypt, where it plays a most useful part in keeping down the numbers 

 of the destructive quadrupeds and the dangerous reptiles. Small and insignificant as this 

 animal appears, it is a most dangerous foe to the huge crocodile, feeding largely upon its eggs, 

 and thus preventing the too rapid increase of these fierce and fertile reptiles. Snakes, rats, 

 lizards, mice, and various birds, fall a prey to this Ichneumon, which will painfully track its 

 prey to its hiding-place, and wait patiently for hours until it makes its appearance, or will 

 quietly creep up to the unsuspecting animal, and flinging itself boldly upon it destroy it by 

 rapid bites with its long sharp teeth. 



