THE HONEY-WEASEL. 



Description, &c. 



herbage; and when apprehensive of their safely 

 she carries them in her mouth from place to 

 place till she find a secure asylum. 



THE HONEY-WEASEL. 



THE honey-weasel is about two feet in length, 

 from the nose to the tail. The back is ash-co- 

 Joured; the sides are marked with a light-grey 

 stripe, and the belly is black. The legs are 

 short; and the claws formed for burrowing. It 

 lives in holes under ground/ and is so extremely 

 fetid, that M. de Caille has given it the appella- 

 tion of the stinking badger. 



This animal seems formed by nature to be the 

 adversary of the bees, and the unwelcome visitor 

 of their habitations ; being endued with a parti- 

 cular faculty of discovering and attacking them 

 within their entrenchments. He is said to be 

 particularly attentive to his business about sun- 

 .set; when he will sit and hold one of his paws 

 before his eyes, in order to modify the rays of 

 the sun, and at the same time to procure a dis- 

 tinct view of the object of his pursuit: and when, 

 in consequence of peering in this manner on 

 ea<:h side of his paw, opposite to the sun, he per- 

 ceives any bees on the wing, he knows that they 

 are going straight to their habitation, and con- 

 sequently takes care to keep in the same direc- 

 tion in order to find them. He has, besides, the 



;*o. vn. 2 p 



