CHAP. I. INSTINCT AMONG QUADRUPEDS. 21 



other hand, it has heen credibly stated that otters, when 

 fishing, will so station themselves, as that one is above, 

 and the other below, where the fish are most abundant; 

 sometimes whistling, as a signal to each other, and per- 

 severing in the chace until the prey is obtained.* Some- 

 thing of this sort has been stated regarding the oran- 

 outang, which has been affirmed to frequent the sea- 

 coasts in search of shellfish ; and having obtained one 

 particular species of oyster, which is generally found 

 upon the beach, instead of inserting its paw, which 

 might be immediately crushed by the collapsing shell, 

 it thrusts in a large stone, and then draws out its prey 

 at pleasure. To this instance of instinct, however, we 

 must withhold our belief : it is not only too rational, 

 but there is nothing yet known, to make us believe that 

 this quadruped feeds, in a state of nature, upon animal 

 food. 



(25.) The instinct which leads, as it has been al- 

 leged, certain animals to search for particular medicinal 

 herbs, has been very generally believed, or, at least, pro- 

 pagated by the writers of popular and elementary Na- 

 tural Histories ; but we are somewhat sceptical in be- 

 lieving this alleged fact, notwithstanding the following 

 statement by an author whose general accuracy there 

 is no reason to doubt : Ichneumons, observes captain 

 Williamson, which are very numerous in India, are the 

 natural enemies of serpents, which they attack without 

 fear of their bulk or venom. They are remarkably 

 quick in their motions, and by their activity and per- 

 severance so worry a snake, that they generally become 

 the conquerors. They are, however, sometimes bitten ; 

 but on such occasions " they hunt about among the 

 common grass, and there find some antidote, of which 

 having eaten, and rubbed themselves with by rolling on 

 the spot, they return to the charge ; never failing to 

 scent the snake's course perfectly correct. It is a thou- 

 sand pities," concludes our author, " that the antidote 

 resorted to by these animals has never been ascer- 



* Pen. Brit Zool. 



c 3 



