THE HONEY RATEL 



or stabbing or shooting it through the heart, will 

 kill a ratel. They are as tenacious of life, or even 

 more so, than the Stink Muishond or Polecat. 

 Few, if any, of the denizens of the forest venture 

 to attack a ratel. 



A female ratel was attacked by Mr L. Walton's 

 dogs on his farm at Mimosa, and while the fight 

 was proceeding the ratel's mate came out of the 

 bush at a swift trot and viciously attacked its mate's 

 enemies, and, to save his dogs from being torn to 

 pieces, Mr Walton was obliged to shoot it. 



Although a nocturnal animal, the ratel is often 

 seen abroad on cloudy days and just after sundown, 

 but until after, dark in the neighbourhood of man 

 it does not venture far from its lair. 



Although its eyes are small and deepset, they are 

 keen and sharp and long-sighted. At night they 

 are powerfully phosphorescent. On an occasion 

 we located a ratel in a cave. The terriers were 

 barking furiously, and the ratel was giving vent to 

 a volley of harsh grating sounds very much like the 

 noise made by filing iron with a large rough rasp. 

 Creeping through the opening to the cave, which 

 was hidden by a great mass of scrubby bush, I 

 was startled to see two bright phosphorescent 

 lights which glowed and flashed and died down, 

 to again flash out with greater intensity. So 

 terrific were the grating growls, and so uncanny did 

 those two points of greenish light from out of the 

 intense darkness appear, that I hastily withdrew. 



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