-MAMMALIA. M LSTELID.E. 



86 



to be suddenly changed into sorrow, for on one occa- 

 sion during their gambols, the animal, without giving 

 any previous indication of his purpose, suddenly seized 

 the young lady by the waist, and before the astonished 

 crew and half-distracted parent could do aught to 

 arrest his progress he was half way up the rigging; 

 neither did he rest till he had gained the maintop ! 

 Doubtless, many of our readers have heard of an elope- 

 ment down, but, perhaps, never up a ladder of ropes ! 

 But the matter is too serious for a joke ! What is to 

 be done? The mother cries! the child screams! 

 and the bear recommences its antics ! A moment's 

 delay may render all chance of escape hopeless ! 

 Alarm and consternation fill every breast ! Shall the 

 sailors ascend the rigging, and by united force tear 

 the frail captive from its arms? If the bear should 

 at any moment relinquish its hold, the poor child 

 must be dashed in pieces ! Bravo ! a bright idea 

 has struck the captain ! See with what alacrity his 

 orders are obeyed ! Mattrasses and pillows are placed 

 around the mast, in case the child should fall, while 

 numerous lumps of sugar are piled together on the 

 deck ! Hurrah ! the saccharine dainty cannot be 

 resisted ! Down comes Bruin, carefully bringing the 

 captive with him ! Once more, hurrah ! Mother and 

 bear are satisfied! The child is released the sugar 

 devoured ! It is almost needless to add, that during the 

 rest of the voyage, the animal was entirely deprived of 

 his sadly-abused liberty. In regard to the capture and 

 destruction of full-grown polar bears in the wild state, 

 early writers have always described such attempts as 

 extremely dangerous; these accounts have probably 

 been exaggerated, but there can be no doubt that in 

 recent times the danger has been materially lessened 

 by the introduction of longer-ranged and more destruc- 

 tive fire-arms. The polar bear seldom quits the regions 

 of eternal ice and snow ; nevertheless he is sometimes 

 observed drifting out to sea on floating icebergs ; by 

 this means he makes excursions to very considerable 

 distances, and has been observed by Captain Scoresby 

 upwards of two hundred miles from the shore. As 

 many as a dozen have come over from West Greenland 

 and landed on the coast of Iceland during a single 

 winter season. Captain Parry, when passing through 

 Barrow's Strait, encountered a polar bear swimming 

 vigorously in the open sea, although at the time the 

 animal was fully forty miles from any coast, and there 

 were no traces of floating ice in any direction. Speci- 

 mens of this animal have always constituted an attrac- 

 tive feature in our menageries, and, notwithstanding 

 the unsuitable character of this climate, they seem to 

 live pretty comfortably. A few years since one of the 

 very fine specimens kept in the Zoological Gardens at 

 Edinburgh gave birth to a solitary cub, but it very soon 

 perished. 



FAMILY II. MUSTELHLE. 



Not only are the weasels, properly so called, placed 

 under this head, but also numerous genera, whose rela- 

 tions are so closely allied to the foregoing family that 

 they are grouped by some naturalists with the Ursidoe, 

 and by others with the present family. On this point 



we purposely adhere to the Cuvierian arrangement, as 

 far as circumstances permit. The Mustelidse, as we 

 have retained the genus, are either semi-plantigrade or 

 to a greater or less extent digitigrade that is to say, 

 they are supported on the tips of their toes during pro- 

 gression. The feet are five-toed or pentadactylous, 

 the claws being fixed or non-retractile. They have 

 elongated, slim, and cylindrical bodies ; it is on account 

 of this long vermiform or worm-like character that the 

 majority of them are called vermin, though to the 

 popular mind that term rather expresses the idea of 

 certain noxious qualities, altogether independent of its 

 etymological signification. The limbs of Mustelidse 

 are short. The head is rounded and narrowed ante- 

 riorly, out that part of the skull containing the brain is 

 considerably extended ; so that the space between the 

 sockets and the posterior margin of the cranium, is 

 much greater than that which obtains in the higher 

 digitigrade Carnivora. The jaws support the usual 

 complement of twelve incisors and four canines, whilst 

 there are generally four or five molars on either side 

 belonging to the upper series, and five or six similarly 

 disposed in each division of the lower group. Four of 

 these teeth are tuberculated that is, one to each of 

 the four divisions of the grinding series above indicated. 

 The condyles or articulating extremities of the rami 

 of the lower jaw are broad transversely, and com- 

 pletely lodged in the corresponding socket called the 

 glenoid cavity. The Mustelidse, like the bears, have 

 no blind or csecal appendage to the intestine. They 

 do not pass the winter in a state of bybernation. 

 Their destructive and sanguinary propensities are well 

 known ; and members of the family are found in all 

 quarters of the globe. Musteline fossil remains occur 

 in the bone-caves and osseous breccias of the tertiary 

 period. 



THE JAVANESE TELEDTJ (Mydaus meliceps). 

 Purposely commencing our weasels with this aberrant 

 type, more particularly on account of its close relations 

 to certain ursine and insectivorous genera, we remark, 

 in the first place, that the muzzle is prolonged in the 

 form of a proboscis. The grinding teeth are eighteen 

 in number, there being twelve spurious and six true 

 ones. The laniary, cutting, or carnassial tooth that 

 is, the fourth or last premolar tooth, reckoning from 

 before backwards supports an accessory central cusp. 

 The head is hog-like ; the ears being rudimentary, and 

 surrounded by a tuft of long fur. The fur consists o;f 

 delicate hairs, which are more or less blackish-brown 

 throughout, except on the central line of the back, on 

 the top of the head, and at the end of the tail, which 

 latter is only half an inch in length, not taking into 

 consideration the long hairs projecting beyond the 

 skin. The body measures about fifteen inches. The 

 limbs are short, thick, and semi-plantigrade, the com- 

 pressed and rather straight claws being united at the 

 base by a sheathing membrane. The teledu emits a 

 most horrible odour, as the author of this article can 

 abundantly confirm, from having had a specimen placed 

 in his hands for dissection and preservation. The 

 intolerable stench arises from the secretion of a pecu- 

 liar matter by two oval glands situated at the posterior 

 part of the body, and opening into the intestine near 



