CLASS I. MAMMALIA: ORDER 5. CARNIVORA. 303 



ratel to follow it, by a peculiar note, which they both equally understand. Having thus secured 

 their attention, it flies slowly on before them, alternately halting for them to come up with it, and 

 then taking another flight, still admonishing them by its warning voice, until it arrives at the spot 

 where the hidden treasure is deposited. Then it suddenly ceases to be heard, but remains quietly 

 perched on a tree in the vicinity, waiting for a share of the plunder, which it usually receives as 

 a reward for its interested service. 



In such an assault upon an angry swarm, the toughness of the ratel's hide must be a most 

 effectual defense, and it is even stated that so difficult is it to penetrate its skin, that a pack of 

 dogs that would be sufficient to dispatch a moderate sized lion, have sometimes failed in their 

 attack upon this comparatively insignificant animal. Such is its tenacity of life, that, as Mr. 

 Barrow states, " it is a species of amusement for the farmers to run knives through different parts 

 of its body -without being able for a length of time to deprive it of existence." Major Denham 

 was, however, informed by the natives of Central Africa, where it is also found, that a single blow 

 on the nose is sufficient to destroy it almost instantaneously, which may probably be owing to 

 the thinness of the skull adjoining the ossa nasi. In the same regions it has obtained credit for 

 so much ferocity as to be said, at certain seasons, to venture singly to attack a man. 



On the whole, we are inclined to doubt the marvelous parts of Sparrman's account of the 

 ratel: that it feeds on honey, and has acute instincts in finding and obtaining it, is very likely; 

 hut that honey is its chief food is by no means probable. The dentition of the animal shows it 

 to be in a high degree carnivorous, and we very readily believe, that, like its Asiatic congener, 

 which we shall soon describe, it diversifies its repasts with flesh when it comes in its way. 



Mr. Bennett well observes that the dentition of the ratel is much at variance with the diet 

 attributed to him in the accounts we have recited, and that their accuracy may fairly be doubted. 

 ' It requires," says he, "the most positive evidence to convince us that an animal, the number and 

 lisposition of whose teeth correspond more closely with those of the cats than any other quadru- 

 ped with which we are acquainted, and exhibit a carnivorous character scarcely, if at all, inferior 

 o that which is evidenced by the same organs in the hyenas, should subsist entirely, as from 

 hese accounts we are left to believe, upon the petty rapine of a hive of bees, and the honeyed pro- 

 luce of their comb. Still, there exist such decisive marks of a diminished capacity for preying 

 m animal food, in the thick-set and clumsy form of its body, the shortness of its limbs, its partially 

 tlantigrade walk, the structure of its muzzle, and even in the form of the teeth themselves, as to 

 nduce us to pause before we determine to reject the popular testimony as unworthy of credit, 

 Jthough we must regard it as doubtful on some particular points, and insufficient and imperfect 

 >n the whole." This animal inhabits the Cape of Good Hope. 



The Indian Ratel, M. Indica, held by some naturalists to be a mere variety of the preceding, 

 ppears to resemble it very closely in appearance. It is found in several parts of India, especially 

 long the high banks bordering the Ganges and the Jumna, and our accounts of it are more reli- 

 ble than those we have of the African species. It rarely issues forth by day, but prowls about 

 t night among the habitations of the Mohammedan natives, scratching up the recently buried 

 odies of the dead, unless they are protected by thorny bushes, placed over them for this pur- 

 ! ose. It burrows with such celerity, that it will work itself under cover in the hardest ground in 

 in minutes. The natives sometimes diff them out of their holes, and take them alive. The old 

 nes are secured with difficulty, and seldom live long in captivity; the young, on the contrary, 

 re docile and playful. In confinement, their general food is flesh, in any and every state ; but 

 irds and rats seem to be particularly acceptable. They are fond of climbing, but perform this 

 peration in a clumsy manner. They sleep much during the day, but become watchful at night, 

 id manifest uneasiness by a hoarse call or bark. A species of this kind of ratel was one of the 

 irliest members of the collection in the London Zoological Gardens, and was particularly playful 

 id good-tempered, soliciting the attention of every visitor by throwing its clumsy body in a vari- 

 y_ of postures, and tumbling head over heels with every symptom of delight. Toward animals 

 3 inanner was entirely different, displaying a cat-like eagerness in watching the motions of the 

 laller species, and they, in return, exhibiting an instinctive dread when they perceived or ap- 

 •oached it. Its food consisted of bread and milk in the morning, and flesh later in the day.. 



