362 NATURAL HISTORY READER. 



" flood and field " ; but the survivors, impelled by some ir- 

 resistible instinct, press onward with no thought of stop- 

 ping, until they lose themselves in the sea, sinking in its 

 depths, as they become exhausted, in such numbers that 

 for miles their bodies, thrown up by the tide, lie putrefy- 

 ing on the shore. Comparatively few ever return to their 

 native haunts, but there can be no doubt that some do so, 

 as they have been seen on the return, pursuing their back- 

 ward journey in the same fearless and determined manner 

 as their advance. Tempk Bar 



THE COATI-MONDI. 



1, Sailors from South America occasionally, among 

 other pets, bring a small animal, which, because of its long 

 nose, they invariably call an ant-eater. Thus was a little 

 stranger introduced to our care a few years ago. A glance 

 was enough to see that it was no ant-eater at all, but a 

 pretty female coati-mondi. Gallant Jack Tar, her master 

 on ship, unconscious of the incongruity, had made a name- 

 sake of her, and called her Jack. Science had already 

 named her Nasua, and in a matter-of-fact way, for the 

 word interpreted just means — ISTosie. The animal was 

 about the size of a cat, with a thick, coarse fur, of a brown- 

 ish hue on the back and sides, and underneath shades from 

 yellow to orange. The long tall was ornamented by a se- 

 ries of black and yellowish-brown rings. 



2. Her nasal prominence reminded me of a queer Span- 

 iard, once employed in the government service to detect 

 spurious coin. His " counterfeit detector " was a sensitive 

 proboscis. By sticking this organ into the glittering heaps, 

 he literally " nosed " out the bad from the good. To that 

 man his nose was the instrument of his profession ; and to 

 Nasua her nose was equally important. It even prompted 



