80 
The Animal-Lore of Shalcspeare's Time. 
“ There are two sorts of them [badgers] one that is tame ; another 
wilde, that hath stiffer bristles. It is also called the dog-badger, 
because his foot is divided like to the dogs: another is called the 
hog-badger, because his hoof is divided into two. There are some 
also greater than foxes, that have a hairy bristly skin, and the bristles 
are stiff, and the skin rough; and with these they cover all their 
quivers for war or hunting, to keep their arrows from the wet and 
snow. Also mens cloaths are made of them.” (Page 187.) 
In an early version of Beynard the Foxe, the badger is 
called “ grymbart the daSse,” from the German dachs, 
whence also comes the modern dachshund, or badger- 
hound. 
Every variety of the weasel tribe possesses as a weapon 
of defence a disagreeable scent. The Skunk 
has the power ot emitting, at will, a secretion 
so fetid that the odour thereof can put to flight both man 
and beast. “ All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten ” 
any substance that has been tainted by this “ odoriferous 
stench.” The skunk is described, though under another 
name, by a Portuguese resident in Brazil :•—- 
“ The biarataca is of the bignesse of a cat, like a ferret; it hath 
a white stroake and a grey along the backe, like a crosse, very well 
made; it feeds upon birds and their egges, and upon other things, 
especially upon ambar, and loveth it so well that all the night he goeth 
by the seaside to seeke it, and where there is any, hee is the first. It 
is greatly feared, not because it hath any teeth, or any other defensive 
thing, but it hath a certaine ventositie so strong, and so evill of sent, 
that it doth penetrate the wood,.the stones, and all that it encountreth 
withall, and it is such that some Indians have died with the stench. 
And the dog that commeth neere it escapeth not: and this smell lasteth 
fifteene, twentie, or more days, and it is such that if it lighteth neere 
some towne, it is presently disinhabited.” ( Purchas , vol. iv., p. 1304.) 
The last statement savours of exaggeration. 
The same writer describes the Coati, or Coati-mundi, 
_ ,. an animal found in Central and South 
Coati. . 
America:— 
“The coaty, is of the height of an hare, with short and spotted 
