Uesidje. 5IAMMALIA. M ustelid^. 85 
to be suddenly changed into sorrow, for on one occa- 
sion during their gambols, the animal, without giving- 
any previous indication of his purpose, suddenly seized 
the young lady by the waist, and before the astonished 
crew and half-distracted parent could do aught to 
arrest his progress he was half way up the rigging; 
neither did he rest till he had gained the maintop ! 
Doubtless, many of our readers have heard of an elope- 
ment down, but, perhaps, never up a ladder of ropes ! 
But the matter is too serious for a joke ! What is to 
be done? The mother cries! — the child screams! — 
and the bear recommences its antics ! A moment’s 
delay may render all chance- of escape hopeless! 
Alarm and consternation fill every breast ! Shall the 
sailors ascend the rigging, and by united force tear 
the frail captive from its arms? If the bear should 
at any moment relinquish its hold, the poor child 
must be dashed in pieces ! Bravo ! — a bright idea 
has struck the captain ! See with what alacrity his 
orders are obeyed ! Mattrasses and pillows are placed 
around the mast, in case the child should fall, while 
numerous lumps of sugar are piled together on the 
deck ! Hurrah ! the saccharine dainty cannot be 
resisted ! Down comes Bruin, carefully bringing the 
captive with him ! Once more, hurrah ! Mother and 
bear are satisfied! The child is released — the sugar- 
devoured ! It is almost needless to add, that during the 
rest of the voyage, the animal was entirely deprived of 
his sadly-abused liberty. In regard to the capture and 
destruction of full-grown polar bears in the wild state, 
early writers have always described such attempts as 
extremely dangerous; these accounts have probabl}' 
been exaggerated, but there can be no doubt that in 
recent times the danger has been materially lessened 
by the introduction of longer-ranged and more destruc- 
tive fire-arms. The polar bear seldom quits the regions 
of eternal ice and snow ; nevertheless he is sometimes 
observed drifting out to sea on floating icebergs ; by 
this means he makes excursions to very considerable 
distances, and has been observed by Captain Scoresby 
upwards of two hundred miles from the shore. As 
many as a dozen have come over from West Greenland 
and landed on the coast of Iceland during a single 
winter season. Captain Parry, when passing through 
Barrow’s Strait, encountered a polar bear swimming 
vigorously in the open sea, although at the time the 
animal was fully forty miles from any coast, and there 
were no traces of floating ice in any direction. Speci- 
mens of this animal have always constituted an attrac- 
tive feature in our menageries, and, notwithstanding 
the unsuitable character of this climate, they seem to 
live pretty comfortably. A few years since one of the 
very fine specimens kept in the Zoological Gardens at 
Edinburgh gave birth to a solitary cub, but it very soon 
perished. 
FAMILY II.— MUSTELID.®. 
Not only are the weasels, properly so called, placed 
under this head, but also numei'ous genera, whose rela- 
tions are so closely ^allied to the foregoing family that 
they are grouped by some naturalists with the Ursidm, 
and by others with the present family. On this point 
we purposely adliere to the Cuvierian arrangement, as 
far as circumstances permit. The Mustelidse, as we 
have retained the genus, are either semi-plantigrade or 
to a greater or less extent digitigrade — that is to say, 
they are supported on the tips of their toes during pro- 
gression. The feet are five-toed or pentadactylous, 
the claws being fixed or non-retractile. They have 
elongated, slim, and cylindrical bodies ; it is on account 
of this long vermiform or worm-like character that the 
majority of them are called vermin, though to the 
popular mind that term rather expresses the idea of 
certain noxious qualities, altogether independent of its 
etymological signification. The limbs of Mustelidm 
are short. The head is rounded and narrowed ante- 
riorly, but that part of the skull containing the brain is 
considerably extended ; so that the space between the 
sockets and the posterior margin of the cranium, is 
much greater than that which obtains in the higher 
digitigrade Carnivora. The jaws support the usual 
complement of twelve incisors and four canines, whilst 
there are generally four or five molars on either side 
belonging to the upper series, and five or six similarly 
disposed in each division of the lower group. Four of 
these teeth are tuberculated — that is, one to each of 
the four divisions of the grinding series above indicated. 
The condyles or articulating extremities of the rami 
of the lower jaw are broad transversely, and com- 
pletely lodged in the corresponding socket called the 
glenoid cavity. The Mustelidse, like the bears, have 
no blind or csecal appendage to the intestine. They 
do not pass the winter in a state of hybernation. 
Their destructive and sanguinary propensities are well 
known ; and members of the family are found in all 
quarters of the globe. Musteline fossil remains occur 
in the bone-caves and osseous breccias of the tertiary 
period. 
THE JAVANESE TELEDXJ {Mydaus meliceps ). — 
Purposely commencing our weasels with this aberrant 
type, more particularly on account of its close relations 
to certain ursine and insectivorous genera, we remark, 
in the first place, that the muzzle is prolonged in the 
form of a proboscis. The grinding teeth are eighteen 
in number, there being twelve spurious and six true 
ones. The laniary, cutting, or carnassial tooth — that 
is, the fourth or last premolar tooth, reckoning from 
before backwards — supports an accessory central cusp. 
The head is hog-like ; the ears being rudimentary, and 
surrounded by a tuft of long fur. The fur consists of 
delicate hairs, which are more or less blackish-brown 
throughout, except on the central line of the back, on 
the top of the head, and at the end of the tail, which 
latter is only half an inch in length, not taking into 
consideration the long hairs projecting beyond the 
skin. The body measures about fifteen inches. The 
limbs are short, thick, and semi-plantigrade, the com- 
pressed and rather straight claws being united at the 
base by a sheathing membrane. The teledu emits a 
most horrible odour, as the author of this article can 
abundantly confirm, from having had a specimen placed 
in his hands for dissection and preservation. The 
intolerable stench arises from the secretion of a pecu- 
liar matter by two oval glands situated at the posterior 
part of the body, and opening into the intestine near 
