RATELS 



77 



stripe dividing the grey of the back from the black of the under-parts. This 

 species ranges over the greater part of Africa' south of Nubia and the Gabun. In 

 the Congo. forest occurs a wholly black species (M. cottoni). 



Another species, M. signata, inhabiting Sierra Leone, differs from other ratels 

 by the completely white crown of the head, and its diet is reported to differ 

 considerably from that attributed to other species. For, according to native 

 testimony, this ratel, which, like the rest of its kind, is nocturnal in its habits, 

 subsists largely upon fish, captured with its paws in shallow water. Support to 

 this statement is afforded by the fact that while in captivity the type specimen 



HONEY-BADGER. 



showed a marked preference for fish, as compared with flesh. It also liked bread 

 better than meat. When kept in the poultry-yard, it showed no inclination to 

 molest the fowls ; but when placed with a litter of puppies, it devoured them all. 



It has frequently been observed that in a large number of members of the 

 weasel tribe — notably in the ratels — the ordinary type of mammalian coloration 

 is reversed, the upper surface of the body being light and the lower dark. There 

 the matter ended, so far as naturalists generally are concerned, till it was pointed 

 out that as the white-bellied type of colouring is undoubtedly for the purpose of 

 rendering the animals in which it occurs inconspicuous, it is only logical to infer 

 that the black -bellied type is to render them as conspicuous as possible. This 

 obvious conclusion is supported by the fact that most, or all, of the black-bellied 



