THE RATEL. 
Ratelus mellivorus. 
The dentition of the Ratel is so contradictory to the 
singular habits attributed to it by Sparrman and all 
subsequent travellers to the Cape of Good Hope, that 
we are compelled to doubt the perfect accuracy of the 
common report on which their statements appear to 
have been founded, or at least to admit that there is 
still much to be learned before its history can be 
regarded as complete. It requires indeed the most 
positive evidence to convince us that an animal, the 
number and disposition of whose teeth correspond more 
closely with those of the Cats than any other quadruped 
with which we are acquainted, and exhibit a carnivo- 
rous character scarcely, if at all, inferior to that which 
is evidenced by the same organs in the Hygenas, should 
subsist entirely, as from these accounts we are left to 
