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EGYPTIAN ICHNEUMON. 
wliat longer ; a long* and slender body, with short 
legs; a sharpened visage ; and inmost species, a 
longish tail. In some of this tribe also, the tongue 
is smooth ; and in others, it is furnished with 
prickles pointing backwards. 
• Egyptian ichneumon. 
The ichneumon is a native of Egypt, Barb ary, 
and the Cape of Good Hope. Its length, from the 
tip of the nose to the end of the tail, is from 
twenty-four to forty-two inches, of which the tail 
occupies nearly one half. Its colour is pale red- 
dish grey, each hair being mottled with brown 
or mouse colour. The eyes are of a bright Ted ; 
the ears almost naked, small, and rounded ; and 
the nose long and slender. The tail is very thick 
at the base ; from whence it gradually tapers to 
almost a point, where it is slightly tufted. The 
hair is hard and coarse ; and the legs are short. 
In Egypt, the ichneumon is justly .considered as 
one of the most useful and estimable of animals ; 
being an inveterate enemy to the serpents, and other 
noxious reptiles which infest the neighbourhood of 
the torrid zone. It attacks without dread that 
most fatal of serpents, the cobra di capello, or 
hooded snake ; and when it receives a wound in 
the combat, instantly retires, and is said to ob- 
tain an antidote from some herb, after which it 
returns to the attack, and seldom fails of victory. 
It is a great destroyer of the eggs of crocodiles, 
which it digs out of the sand ; and even kills 
multitudes of the young of those terrible creatures. 
It was not, therefore, without some appearance of 
reason, that the ancient Egyptians ranked the 
ichneumon among their deities. 
It is at present domesticated, and kept in houses, 
in India and Egypt, where it is found more useful 
