7 2 
MAMMALIA. 
gentle manner, the animal would instantly spring at it. I could see 
that, in running along the floor, it stopped the moment its whiskers 
touched anything ; and often, when at full speed, it would turn aside 
just before reaching an object against which it seemed about to strike, 
and which it certainly had not seen. Unless enraged by being 
teazed, it endeavored to smell every new object with which its 
whiskers came in contact, turning its long flexible snout with great 
facility tor this purpose. 
“ My caged specimens, both male and female, exhibited great 
pugnacity. When I touched one several times with a stick, it would 
become much enraged, snapping and crying out angrily. When 
attacked by a meadow-mouse ( Arvicola scalopsoides ) confined in a 
cage with it one fought fiercely ; and though it did not pursue its 
adversary when the latter moved off, neither did it ever retreat ; but 
the instant the mouse came close, it sprang at him, apparently not 
guided in the least by sight. It kept its nose and whiskers constantly 
moving from side to side, and often sprang forward with an angry 
cry, when the mouse was not near, as if deceived in thinking it had 
heard or felt a movement in that direction. In fighting, it did not 
spring up high, nor attempt to leap upon its adversary, as the mouse, 
but jerked itself along, stopping firmly, with the fore-feet well forward, 
and the head high. On coming in contact with the mouse, it 
snapped at him, and, though it sometimes rose on its hind-feet in 
the struggle, I did not observe that it used its fore-feet as weapons 
of offence, like the arvicolse. Its posture, when on guard, was always 
with the feet spread and firmly braced, and the head held with the 
snout pointing upwards, and the mouth and chin forward, in which 
position its eyes would have been of no use, could it have seen. 
The motions of this animal, when angry, are characterized by a pe- 
culiar firmness ; the muscles appear to be held very rigid, while the 
movements are made by quick energetic jerks. Short springs, either 
backward, forward, or sidewise, appear to be made with equal readi- 
ness. 
