CARNARIA. 77 



MANGCSTA, Cuv. HERPESTES, Illig. 



The pouch is voluminous and simple. The hairs are annulated with 

 light and obscure tints, which determine their general colour on the eye. 



The Mangouste of Egypt, so celebrated among the ancients under the 

 name of Ichneumon, is grey, with a long tail terminated with a black tuft; 

 it is larger than our Cat, and as slender as a Marten. It chiefly hunts for 

 the eggs of the Crocodile, but also feeds on all sorts of small animals; brought 

 up in houses, it hunts Mice, Reptiles, &c. I>y the Europeans at Cairo it is 

 called Pharaoh's Rat; by the natives, Nems. The ancient tradition of its 

 jumping down the throat of the Crocodile to destroy it, is entirely fabulous. 

 There are other species. 



Illig. 



The Surikates have a strong resemblance to the Mangoustes, even to the 

 tints and transverse streaks of the hair, but are distinguished from them and 

 from all the Carnivora of which we have hitherto spoken, by having only 

 four toes to each foot. They also are higher on their legs, and they have 

 not the small molar immediately behind the canine tooth. 



One species only is known, a native of Africa Viv, tetradactyla, Gm., a 

 little less than the Mangouste of India. 



CROSSAHCHTTS, Fred. Cuv. 



The muzzle, teeth, pouch, and walk of the Surikates, the toes of the 

 Mangoustes. 



One species only is known Crossarchus obscurus, Fred. Cuv., from Sierra 

 Leone, of the size of the Surikate; greyish brown; cheeks a little paler, and 

 a hairy tail. 



The last subdivision of the Digitigrada has no small teeth of any 

 kind behind the large molar of the lower jaw. The animals con- 

 tained in it are the most cruel and sanguinary of the class. They 

 form two genera. 



HYAENA, Storr. 



The Hyenas have three false molars above and four below, all conical, blunt 

 and singularly large; their superior carnivorous tooth has a small tubercle 

 within and in front, but the inferior has none, presenting only two stout 

 trenchant points: with these powerful arms they are enabled to crush the 

 bones of the largest prey. The tongue is rough and each foot has four toes 

 like that of the Surikate. So powerful are the muscles of the neck and 

 jaw, that it is almost impossible to wrest any thing from between their teeth 

 that they have once seized, and, among the Arabs, their name is the sym- 

 bol of obstinacy. It sometimes happens that an anchylosis of the cervical 

 vertebrae is the consequence of these violent efforts, and this has caused it 

 to be said that they have only one single bone in the neck. They are 



