THE GLUTTON, Oil AVOLVEHENE. 



1R5 



The wolverene produces young once a year, in number from two to four. The cubs are covered 

 with a downy fur of a pale-cream colour. Pennant says that the skin is sold in Siberia for four or MX 

 .shillings; at Yakutsk, for twelve shillings; and still dearer in Kamtschatka, where the women dress 

 their hair with its white paws, which they reckon a great ornament. The fur, he adds, is greatly 

 esteemed in Kurope ; and he remarks that the skins of the wolverene of the north of Kurope and Asia, 



THE OLUTT03. 



which are sometimes to be seen in the furriers' shops, are infinitely finer, blacker, and more glos-sy 

 than those from America. Sir John Richardson says that the fur of the American glutton bears a 

 great similarity to that of the black bear, but that it is not so long, nor of so much value. 

 Another genus* contains 



THE CAPE liATEL.f 



Ix size this animal is about equal to the badger, to which it also bears a distant resemblance in form. 

 The whole of the upper surface of the body, which is singularly broad and flat, comprehending the top 

 of the head and neck, the entire plane of the back, and the root of the tail, is of a dull-ash gray, whiter 

 towards the head, and strongly contrasting with the under parts, including also the muzzle, the contour 

 of the eyes and of the ears, the limbs, and the remainder of the tail, which are throughout perfectly 

 black. 



The hair all over the body, though tolerably smooth, is remarkably stiff and wiry, and the hide 

 beneath it is excessively tough. It is so loose, that Sparrmau says : "If anybody catches hold of the 

 Ratel by the hind part of his neck, he is able to turn round, as it were, in his .skin, and bite the arm 

 of the person that seizes him." The claws on the fore feet are extremely long, and though not very 

 strongly curved, of considerable power, being formed especially for digging up the earth, which it is 



Mellivura. t'. Cuvier. 



f Mellir 



