38 



MAMMALIA. 



form ; small and weak, they are nevertheless very cruel, and 

 live on blood ; they do not become torpid in winter. Four 

 remarkable genera. 



Genus I. Putorius, Cuv. Pole-Cat. 



Head rounded ; muzzle short and extending beyond the 

 mouth ; ears round and much wider than high ; tongue co- 

 vered with pimples ; as many as five toes on all the feet, and 

 united in three fourths of their length by a loose membrane ; 

 smell detestable ; life nocturnal and solitary ; disposition 

 more cruel than in any other kind, 



The common Pole-cat is brown, approaching to black; the 

 sides of a reddish yellow ; fifteen or eighteen inches long, 

 without counting the tail which is six ; it is the terror of hen- 

 roosts and warrens ; it will crush the heads of all the fowls 

 in a poultry yard, and transport them one by one to its den. 

 If, as often happens, it cannot carry them off entire, on ac- 

 count of the narrowness of the hole through which it entered, 

 it devours the brains and carries off the heads. 



Genus II. Mephitis, Cuv. Skunk. 



Two false molars above, three below, the superior tuber- 

 culous one very large ; anterior nails long and fitted for dig- 

 ging ; remarkable for their fetid exhalations. [America and 

 Java.] 



Genus III. Mustela. Marten. 



Great resemblance to the Pole-cat ; muzzle, however, more 

 elongated ; has an additional false molar above and below ; 

 tongue covered with soft pimples. [Both continents.] 



Genus IV. Lutra. Otter. 



Head large and compressed ; body slim ; tongue demi- 

 asperate ; on all the feet toes to the number of five, armed 

 with short claws, united throughout their whole length by a 

 broad and strong membrane, which, together with the ex- 

 treme shortness of their limbs, and their horizontally flat- 

 tened tail, gives them facility in swimming ; fur very thick 

 and composed of two sorts of hair, one silky, long, glossy and 

 thicker at the point than at the base, the other woolly, shorter 

 and more abundant. They live on fish. 



