CLASS I. MAMMALIA: ORDER 5. CARJSTIYORA. 303 
ratel to follow it, by a peculiar note, wliicli they both equally understand. Having thus secured 
their attention, it flies slowly on before them, alternately halting for them to come up Avith it, and 
then taking another flight, still admonishing them by its warning voice, until it arrives at the spot 
where the hidden treasure is deposited. Then it suddenly ceases to be heard, but remains quietly 
perched on a tree in the vicinity, waiting for a share of the plunder, which it usually receives as 
a reward for its interested service. 
In such an assault upon an angry swarm, the toughness of the ratel's hide- must be a most 
efl"ectual defense, and it is even stated that so diflicult is it to penetrate its skin, that a pack of 
dogs that would be suflicient to dispatch a moderate sized lion, have sometimes failed in their 
attack upon this comparatively insignificant animal. Such is its tenacity of life, that, as Mr. 
Barrow states, " it is a species of amusement for the farmers to run knives through different parts 
of its body without being able for a length of time to deprive it of existence." Major Denliam 
was, however, informed by the natives of Central Africa, where it is also found, that a single blow 
on the nose is suflicient to destroy it almost instantaneously, which may probably be owing to 
the thinness of the skull adjoining the ossa nasi. In the same regions it has obtained credit for 
so much ferocity as to be said, at certain seasons, to venture singly to attack a man. 
On tlie whole, we are inclined to doubt the marvelous parts of Sparrman's account of the 
ratel ; that it feeds on honey, and has acute instincts in finding and obtaining it, is very likely ; 
but that honey is its chief food is by no means probable. The dentition of the animal shows it 
to be in a high degree carnivorous, and we very readily believe, that, like its Asiatic congener, 
which we shall soon describe, it diversifies its repasts with flesh when it comes in its way. 
Mr. Bennett well observes that the dentition of the ratel is much at variance with the diet 
attributed to him in the accounts we have recited, and that their accuracy may fairly be doubted. 
" It requires," says he, "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 quadru- 
ped with which we are acquainted, and exhibit a carnivorous character scarcely,, if at all, inferior 
to that which is evidenced by the same organs in the hyenas, should subsist entirely, as from 
these accounts we are left to believe, upon the petty rapine of a hive of bees, and the honeyed pro- 
duce of their comb. Still, there exist such decisive marks of a diminished capacity for preying 
on animal food, in the thick-set and clumsy form of its body, the shortness of its limbs, its partially 
plantigrade walk, the structure of its muzzle, and even in the form of the teeth themselves, as to 
induce us to pause before we determine to reject the popular testimony as unworthy of credit, 
although we must regard it as doubtful on some particular points, and insufiicient and imperfect 
on the whole." This animal inhabits the Cape of Good Hope. 
The Indian Ratel, M. Indica, held by some naturalists to be a mere variety of the preceding,, 
appears to resemble it very closely in appearance. It is found in several parts of India, especially 
along the high banks bordering the Ganges and the Jumna, and our accounts of it are more reli- 
able than those we have of the African species. It rarely issues forth by day, but prowls about 
at night among the habitations of the Mohammedan natives, scratching up the recently buried 
bodies of the dead, unless they are protected by thorny bushes, placed over them for this pur- 
pose. It burrows with such celerity, that it will work itself under cover in the hardest ground in 
ten minutes. The natives sometimes dig them out of their holes, and take them alive. The old 
ones are secured with difficulty, and seldom live long in captivity; the young, on the contrary, 
are docile and playful. In confinement, their general food is flesh, in any and every state ; but 
birds and rats seem to be particularly acceptable. They are fond of climbing, but perform this 
operation in a clumsy manner. They sleep much during the day, but become watchful at night, 
and manifest uneasiness by a hoarse call or bark. A species of this kind of ratel was one of the 
earliest members of the collection in the London Zoological Gardens, and was particularly playful 
and good-tempered, soliciting the attention of every visitor by throwing its clumsj^ body in a vari- 
ety of postures, and tumbling head over heels with every symptom of delight. Toward animals 
its manner was entirely different, displaying a cat-like eagerness in watching the motions of the 
smaller species, and they, in return, exhibiting an, instinctive dread when they perceived or ap- 
proached it. Its food consisted of bread and milk in the morning, and flesh later in the day. 
