Volume 1

The gardens and menagerie of the Zoological Society delineated / published with the sanction of the Council, under the superintendence of the secretary and vice-secretary of the society.

  • Zoological Society of London.
Date:
1835
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The gardens and menagerie of the Zoological Society delineated / published with the sanction of the Council, under the superintendence of the secretary and vice-secretary of the society. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ceases to be heard; but remains quietly perched on a tree in the vicinity, waiting for a share of the plunder which it usually receives as a reward for its interested service. In such an attack upon an angry swarm the tough¬ ness of the Ratel’s hide must be a most effectual defence; and it is even stated that so difficult is it to penetrate its skin that a pack of dogs, which would be sufficient to dispatch a moderate sized lion, have sometimes failed in their attack upon so comparatively insignificant an animal. Such is its tenacity of life that Mr. Barrow states that “ it is a species of amuse¬ ment for the farmers to run knives through different parts of its body, without being able for a length of time to deprive it of existence.” Major Denham was, however, informed by the natives of Central Africa, where it is also found, that a single blow on the nose is sufficient to destroy it almost instantaneously: which may probably be owing to the thinness of the skull adjoining the ossa nasi. In the same regions it has obtained credit for so much ferocity, as to be said, at certain seasons, to venture singly to attack a man. Very different from Sparrman’s account is that given by General Hardwicke, whose testimony is so fully confirmed by the structure of the animal that its au¬ thenticity may be considered as beyond a doubt. The General states that it is found in several pai’ts of India, in the high banks bordering the Ganges and the Jumna, from which it rarely issues by day, but prowls at night around the habitations of the Mahommedan natives, scratching up the recently buried bodies of the dead, unless their graves are protected by thorny bushes placed over them for the purpose. It burrows with such celerity that it will work itself under cover in the hardest ground in the space of ten minutes. The c 2