345 
EGYPTIAN ICHNEUMON, 
than a cat in destroying rats and mice. It is easily 
tamed, is very active, and springs with great agi- 
lity on its prey. It will glide along the ground 
like a serpent, and seem as if without feet. It sits 
up like a squirrel, eats from its fore feet, ahd 
catches any thing that is dung to it. It is a great 
enemy to poultry, and will feign itself dead to at- 
tract them within its reach. It is said to be ex- 
tremely skilful in seizing the serpent by the throat* 
in such a manner as to avoid receiving any in- 
jury. 
e - c I bad/" says M. B’Obsonville, in his Essays 
on the Nature of various foreign Animals, fC an 
ichneumon very young, which I brought up. I 
fed it at first with milk, and afterwards with 
baked meat, mixed with rice. It soon became 
even tamer than a cat ; for it came when called* 
and followed me, though at liberty, into the coun« 
try. 
One day I brought him a small water-ser- 
pent alive, being desirous to know how far his in- 
stinct would carry him against a being with which 
he was hitherto totally unacquainted. His first 
emotion seemed to be astonishment mixed with 
anger, for his hair became erect ; but in an instant 
after, he slipped behind the reptile, and with a 
remarkable swiftness and agility leaped upon its 
head, seized it, and crushed it between his teeth. 
This essay, and new aliment, seemed to have 
awakened in him his innate and destructive vora- 
city ; which, till then, had given way to the gen® 
tleness lie had acquired from his education. I had 
about my house several curious kinds of fowls* 
among which he had been brought up, and which* 
till then, he had suffered to go and come unmo- 
lested and unregarded ; but, a few days after, when 
he found himself alone, he strangled them every 
V OL. J. y y 
/ 
