WILD ANIMALS IN CAPTIVITY 



poisonous one, we think would be at a loss to know how 

 to doctor his wounds were they filled with poison as active 

 and fatal as the poison of the cobra. It is probable that 

 no living creature, the size of which does not render it 

 impossible to be seized, is free or safe from its attack. 

 It will, when other food is not at hand, take to the water 

 like an otter, and swim about after fish. The slippery 

 eel, which it kills in the same manner as it would a snake, 

 is unable to elude its bloodthirsty intentions. 



In fighting with each other, the mode of attack is 

 completely changed; the neck of the ichneumon being 

 thick and almost invulnerable, they bite each other about 

 the feet and legs, and most frequently terminate their 

 battle by getting fast hold of the throat. They live in 

 holes in the ground, among loose stones or rocks, in hollow 

 trees or under the roots, in old drains or in any comfort- 

 able hiding-place, their slender form enabling them to 

 find their way into places so small, that it sometimes 

 appears incredible that they could enter them. Their 

 habits are both diurnal and nocturnal, according to cir- 

 cumstances. They usually produce three or four at a 

 birth : the young are helpless and blind for some days. 



The ichneumon is a dangerous animal to keep in a 

 careless manner in the house, or in any other place, as 

 should it by accident find itself at liberty, it will kill 

 every living creature it can overpower. One kept as a 

 pet by the writer escaped in the night from its cage, and 

 cleared the poultry-house belonging to him by killing 

 fifteen or sixteen valuable fowls through biting them on 

 the back of the necks, and, no doubt, sucking a portion 

 of blood from each of its victims. It is a well-known fact 

 that a single animal will continue to hunt and kill, one 

 after another, everything that it can find possessing life 

 in the place, and in that way a very large number of its 



