36 The Carnivora. 
be different with daboia or bungarus. The viperines always 
impress me with a sense of their superior vigour and deter- 
mination. The natives here are afraid to catch them for me, 
whereas I have no difficulty in getting any number of cobras I 
want. If I can get hold of a daboia, I will repeat, the experi- 
ment with the mungoos, and let you know the result.” 
From these notes it appears conclusive that the animal is 
not endowed with any protective of a physiological character, 
and in these instances it did not seek for any antidote. More- 
over, artificial inoculation of the mungoos with the virus of 
various species of snakes has always proved fatal with the 
symptoms exhibited by all other mammals. 
A singular point in some of the members of this family is 
the structure of the tail: Thus, the Paradoxures receive their 
name from the peculiarity of « corkscrew-like twist, in that 
organ possessed by some of them to which no function has 
been attributed. The binturong, however, possesses a long 
tail, as prehensile as that of any monkey, which it employs in 
exactly the same manner. 
That singularly aberrant form, the glutton, or wolverine, 
now confined to Arctic regions, although once spread over 
temperate Europe, has been credited with supernatural powers 
of digestion; but it is chiefly interesting for the sagacity it 
displays in robbing the traps of the hunters of their game, 
and eluding almost every conceivable device intended for its 
own destruction. If the accounts given may be taken as trust- 
worthy, it displays as much reflection and ingenuity in springing 
traps andfguns{set for it, and then appropriating the bait, as 
we could expect from any human being fairly acquainted with 
such mechanical contrivances. 
‘ Another aberrant family is that of the Protelide, contain- 
ing but one representative, viz., the curious South African 
* Aard-wolf” of the Dutch colonists, which possesses anatomical 
characters in common with the hyenas and civets. On looking 
at one of these animals, the long fore legs and striped skin give 
it a distinctly hyzna-like aspect, but the pointed muzzle and 
