81 
PART IV. 
REVIEWS AND EXTRACTS. 
♦ 
1.— Extracts from the Gardens and Menagerie of the Zoolo¬ 
gical Society, in 2 vols. 8vo., with Descriptions and Figures 
of Living Animals in the Society’s possession, (resumed) 
13 
THE RATEL. {Ilatellus MelUvorns.) 
Iff size, the Ratel is equal to the badg^er, to which it also bears a resemblance in 
form. The whole of the upper surface of the body, (which is sing^ularly broad and 
flat,) comprehending the top of the head and neck, the entire plane of the back, 
and the root of the tail, is of a dull ash-grey, whiter towards the head, and strongly 
contrasting with the under parts, including also the muzzle, the contour of the eyes 
and of the ears, the limbs, and the remainder of the tail, which are throughout 
perfectly black. The only visible difference which we have been able to detect, 
between the Asiatic and African animals, consists in this—that the latter is descri¬ 
bed as pos.sessing a stripe of lighter grey, about an inch in breadth, passing from 
behind the ears, along each side, and forming the boundary of the two colours, 
which is entirely wanting in our specimen. The hair all over the body, although 
tolerably smooth, is remarkably stiff and wiry 5 and the hide beneath it is exces¬ 
sively tough, and so loose, that Sparrman’s statement is scarcely to bo regarded as 
an exaggeration, when he assures us, that if “any body catches hold of him by the 
hinder part of hi.s neck, he is able to tnrn round, as it were, in his skin, and bite 
the arm of the person that seizes him.’’ The claws of the fore feet are extremely 
long, and although not very strongly curved, of considerable power, being formed 
especially for digging up the earth—an operation whi^h all the accounts of the 
animal’s manners concur in stating, that it performs with dexterity. Of these 
claws, the middle three are much longer than the lateral, and the internal one is 
placed far behind the others; on the hind feet, the claws also, five in number, are 
VoL, 1, No. 2. M 
