THE ICHNEUMON. 307 



M. D'ObsonvilJe's account of a tame ichneumon. 



of the Torrid zone. It attacks that most fatal of 

 serpents, the Cobra di Capello, or hooded snake-; 

 and when it receives a wound in the combat, in- 

 stantly retires, and is said to obtain an antidote 

 from some herb ; after which it renews the com- 

 bat, and almost invariably proves victorious. It 

 is more useful than a cat in clearing houses of 

 rats and mice; and is a great destroyer of the 

 eggs of crocodiles, which it digs out of the sand; 

 and even kills multitudes of the young of those 

 terrible creatures : but it is also an enemy to 

 poultry, and will even feign itself dead to attract 

 them within its reach. 



M. D'Obsonville, in his Essays on the Nature 

 of various foreign Animals, speaks of one of these 

 quadrupeds which he reared from a young one. 

 " I fed him/' says he, " at first with milk ; and af- 

 terwards with baked meat, mixed with rice. He 

 soon became even tamer than a cat; for he came 

 when called, and followed me, though at liberty, 

 into the country. 



'' One day I brought to him a small water ser- 

 pent alive, being desirous to krlow how far his 

 instinct would' carry him against a being with 

 which he was hitherto totally unacquainted. His 

 first emotion seemed to-be astonishment mixed 

 with anger, for his hair became erect ; but in an 

 instant after, he slipped behind the reptile, an'd 

 with a remarkable agility leaped" upon its head', 

 seized it, and crushed it between his teeth. This 

 essay, and new aliment, seemed to have awak- 

 2 o 2 



