Aug. 17, 1888.] 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



i55 



Natural Itfatorj)* 



THE RATEL (MELLIVORA RATEL). 

 Among the distinctive peculiarities of animal, or at least 

 of mammalian species, one of the most curious, 

 and at the same time most generally overlooked, 

 is the comparative tightness or slackness of their skins. 



in the uncouth-looking animal whose portrait we borrow 

 from La Nature. So loosely clad is this creature that, 

 familiarly speaking, it can turn round in its skin ; and if 

 seized almost by any part, it can thus contrive to inflict 

 a bite upon the hand, or paw, or head of the aggressor. 

 In the ratel, or beejoo, the skin is, in addition, very 

 thick, and the fur dense and compact. If we inquire 

 into its habits and its way of earning a livelihood, we 



The Ratel. 



In ourselves, and in our nearest " poor relations," the 

 apes and monkeys, the skin fits very tightly .over the 

 body. On some parts of our frame only, such as the 

 knuckles, the elbows, and the knees, there is a loose fold 

 of skin to allow of the free play of the joint. In some 

 of the lower mammalian forms, those especially which 

 coil themselves up into a kind of ball when asleep, the 

 skin is of necessity very loose, like a coat too large for 

 the wearer. This arrangement occurs more or less in 

 the porcupines, the hedgehogs, but perhaps most of all 



may easily see that the structural features just men- 

 tioned are exactly such as are likely to have been 

 developed by natural selection. It lives in Africa and 

 India ; it is a nocturnal, burrowing animal, and its 

 favourite food is the comb of the wild bee, full of honey 

 and young brood. Had the ratel, therefore, such a skin 

 as men or monkeys, it would be infallibly destroyed by 

 the stings of the insects whom it seeks to plunder. 

 Even in England a hive of bees, when thoroughly en- 

 raged, is a formidable antagonist, but in tropical climates, 



