THE RATEL. 
17 
figure of the Indian variety given by General Hard- 
wicke. 
The hair all over the body, although tolerably smooth, 
is remarkably stiff and wiry ; and the hide beneath it 
is excessively tough, and so loose that Sparrman's 
statement is scarcely to be regarded as an exaggeration, 
when he assures us that if any body catches hold of 
him by the hind part of his neck, he is able to turn 
round, as it were, in his skin, and bite the arm of the 
person that seizes him." The claws on the fore feet 
are extremely long, and although not very strongly 
curved, of considerable power, being formed especially 
for digging up the earth ; an operation which all the 
accounts of the animal's manners concur in stating that 
it performs with great dexterity. Of these claws the 
middle three are much longer than the lateral, and the 
internal one is placed far behind the others. On the 
hind feet the claws, also five in number, are of nearly 
equal length, but are much shorter, and proportionally 
much less powerful, than those of the anterior members. 
The total length of the animal is about three feet, of 
which its tail forms little more than a sixth. Its height 
does not exceed ten or twelve inches, and the length of 
its fore claws, when not worn down by constant use, is 
about an inch and a half. 
With respect to the habits of these animals we shall 
first give an abstract of Sparrman's version of the 
relations of the Hottentots and of the Dutch Colonists, 
which has been adopted by all subsequent writers. 
The bees, according to our author, furnish the Ratel 
with his principal, if not his only, means of subsist- 
ence. These insects are accustomed to take up their 
abode in holes in the earth formed by various burrowing 
quadrupeds ; and the Ratel is endowed with peculiar 
sagacity for discovering their nests, which it undermines 
c 
