§02 CLASS MAMMALIA. 



which a Dog, that had received it from the Yagouare a 

 week before, commnnicated to some furniture, although the 

 Dog had been washed and scrubbed with sand above twenty 

 times. 



This animal is comparatively slow in its motions ; for 

 although it gallops occasionally, it does not then go faster 

 than a man, It digs holes in the ground for retreat, and 

 deposits its young in them. Its fetid urine, when ejected 

 in the dark, is said to emit a phosphoric light. 



When they are hunted, it appears the natives irritate 

 them first with a long cane, in order to make them void 

 their urine, and exhaust their means of defence. They will 

 also approach by surprise, and, seizing them by the tail, 

 will quickly suspend them by it, in which situation they are 

 incapable of emitting their offensive liquor ; and the hunters 

 are enabled to destroy the pouch in which it is secreted, 

 before they kill and skin them. When taken by these 

 means, and deprived of their strange mode of annoyance, 

 they are said to be sometimes domesticated. 



Azara observed a considerable tendency in his species to 

 variety ; and he found also that their skins became subject 

 to change their colours, when kept any time, which seems 

 to strengthen the probability, that although animals in 

 a wild state, in general, are much less subject to vary than 

 those that are domesticated, yet this tribe of Weasels may 

 be more particularly liable to this influence, whence indivi- 

 duals of the same species may have been described so dif- 

 ferently, and treated as distinct. 



The above observations are intended to convey, as nearly 

 as possible, the present state of knowledge, or, rather, the 

 real state of ignorance existing in regard to the distinctive- 

 ness of the species of these animals. Individuals of the 

 Mephitic family of Weasels are very seldom brought to this 

 country ; and the Zorillo of the Cape, which has been occa- 

 sionally to be seen in our menageries and collections, has 



