WEASEL EAMILY. 49 



the British Museum they are nearly white, with the exception of the muzzle, 

 which is dark. Occasionally, individuals are met with in which the whole of the 

 fur, except that on the muzzle, ears, and feet, is entirely white; one such example 

 being shown in the upper figure of our illustration. The nose has a vertical groove 

 at its extremity, the teeth are relatively large and protruding, and the aspect of the 

 animal is ugly and forbidding. 



The range of the tayra is generally stated to extend from Mexico in the north 

 to the Rio de la Plata in the south, but it also includes some of the more southerly 

 portions of the Argentine pampas. In British Honduras tayras were observed 

 by Moore hunting in companies of from fifteen to twenty, and although some 

 writers have doubted the correctness of this statement, it is fully confirmed by 

 Mr. Hudson in Argentina. Rengger states that the tayra lives both in open grass- 

 clad country, and likewise in forest. Writing of this and the next species, Mr. 

 Hudson says that, on the pampas of Argentina, " there are two quaint-looking 

 weasels, intensely black in colour, and grey on the back and flat crown. One is a 

 large bold animal (G. barbara) that hunts in companies; and when these long- 

 bodied creatures sit up erect, glaring with beady eyes, grinning and chattering at 

 the passer-by, they look like little friars in black robes and grey cowls ; but the 

 expression on their round faces is malignant and bloodthirsty beyond anything in 

 nature, and it would, perhaps, be more decent to liken them to devils rather than 

 to humans." 



Although largely nocturnal in its habits, the tayra will frequently hunt till 

 midday, when it seeks its lair and reposes till evening. This lair is generally either 

 the deserted burrow of an armadillo, or some hole in a tree. The food of the 

 animal consists of such mammals as it is able to kill, such as agutis and other 

 rodents, but it also eats birds and their eggs. In inhabited districts the tayra 

 frequently raids on poultry-houses, among the inmates of which it commits much 

 havoc. Honey it also readily eats. The nest, which is sometimes made in the 

 cavities of rocks, instead of in a hollow tree or deserted burrow, is constructed 

 with much care. In one nest, examined by Hensel, two young were found, which 

 were then quite blind, and had much the appearance of young foxes. 



This (G. vittata) is a smaller animal than the tayra, and may 

 be compared in size to a marten or an Indian mungoose. It is also 

 readily distinguished by its relatively shorter tail, of which the length does not 

 exceed half that of the head and body, and likewise by its coloration. The latter 

 is of that peculiar type to which we have already referred, in which the under- 

 parts are much darker than the upper. The snout, the under-surface of the neck, 

 and the under-parts of the body are very dark brown, whereas the whole of the 

 upper-surface, from the forehead nearly to the tip of the tail, is of a uniform bluish- 

 grey tint, the individual hairs being ringed with black and white. From the 

 forehead to the shoulder the grey and brown areas are divided by a lighter band 

 with a yellowish tinge, while the tip of the tail and the ears are distinctly yellow. 

 There is no groove on the nose. The grison is found over the greater part of South 

 America, as well as in Central America and Mexico ; and there is also Allemand's 

 grison (G. allemandi), which is of larger size, but has the same general coloration, 

 although presenting some approximation to the tayra. 



VOL. II. — 4 



