S52 
HO NET WEASEL* 
them. He lias, besides,, the sagacity to follow 
the cu cuius indicator, a little bird,, which flies on, 
by degrees., with a peculiar and alluring note,, and 
•guides him to the bees’-nesfs. 
As the ratel’s hairs are stiff and harsh, so its 
hide is tough, and the animal itself difficult to kill. 
The Colonists and Hottentots both assert, that 
it is almost impossible to kill this creature, with- 
out giving it a great number of violent blows on 
the nose ; on which account they usually destroy 
it by shooting it, or by plunging a knife into its 
body. The shortness of his legs will not permit 
him to make his escape by flight, when pursued by 
the hounds. He is 'able, " however, sometimes to 
extricate himself from their clutches, by biting 
and scratching them in a most terrible manner : 
while, on the other hand, he is perfectly well 
defended from the assaults of their teeth by the 
toughness of his hide ; for, when a hound endea- 
vours to bite him, it can lay hold only on this part, 
■which instantly separates from the creature’s body 
or flesh, as it is reported to lie loose from the skin, 
sis within a sack ; so that, when any one catches hold 
of him by the hind part of his neck,' and that even 
pretty near his head, he can turn round, as it were, 
in his skin, and bite the arm that seises him. It 
is a remarkable circumstance, that such a number 
of hounds as are able collectively to tear in pieces 
a lion of moderate size, are said to be sometimes 
obliged to leave the rate! dead in appearance only. 
Is it not, therefore, probable, that nature, which 
seems to have destined the rate! for the destruction 
of bees, may have bestowed on it a hide so much 
tougher than those she has given to other animals 
of the viverra kind, for the purpose of defending it 
from the stings of these insects ? 
Those bees’-ncsts that are built in trees, are in 
no danger whatever from the ratel. In the first 
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