8o NATURAL HISTORY IN ANECDOTE. 



remarkable instinct unearths them from the banks of rivers 

 where they have been deposited. 



Dormant Though perfectly tame in captivity, the natural 

 Instinct, instincts of the ichneumon are only dormant, as 

 the following illustration will show. M. d'Obsonville says, in his 

 " Essay on the Nature of Various Animate", " I had an ichneu- 

 mon very young, which I brought up. I fed it at first with 

 milk, and afterwards with baked meat, mixed with rice. It 

 soon became even tamer than a cat; for it came when called, 

 and followed me, though at liberty, into the country. One 

 day I brought to him a small water serpent alive, being 

 desirous to know how far his instinct would carry him, against 

 a being with which he was hitherto totally unacquainted. His 

 first emotion seemed to be astonishment, mixed with anger: 

 for his hair became erect; but in an instant after, he slipped 

 behind the reptile, and, with remarkable swiftness and agility, 

 leaped upon its head, seized it, and crushed it between his 

 teeth. This essay, and new aliment, seemed to have awakened 

 in him his innate and destructive voracity, which, till then, 

 had given way to the gentleness he had acquired from his 

 education. I had about my house several curious kinds of 

 fowls, among which he had been brought up, and which, till 

 then, he had suffered to go and come unmolested and imre- 

 garded; but, a few days after, when he found himself alone, 

 he strangled them every one, eat a little, and, as it appeared, 

 drank the blood of two." 

 The Aard The Aard Wolf of South Afnca, is the sole 

 Wolf. genus and species of the ProteUdEe family. It 

 much resembles the hyasna in appearance and habit, and 

 feeds on carrion and white ants. 



The Hyeena. The Hysena, though long treated as a member 

 of the dog femily, is now separately classified as the 

 Hyaenidae, a lamily of one genus and three species, all of 

 which are fovmd in Africa. The Hyaena is also found in 

 Egypt, Arabia, Persia and other parts ot Asia. He has 



Digitized by Microsoft® 



