126 CHILDREN'S BOOK I01e SABBA711 1OURS.

 Swill destroy vermin quite as well as cats
 GENETS. do.
 OW would you like this animal Were you in the city of Constanti-
 for a plaything? Would you nopie, very likely you would see many
 be afraid of it ? You need not of these pretty little creatures. It is
 S be, for it is gentle and kind, if said they there go from house to house,
well treated. It looks just a little like and when they make their appearance
pussy, which you love so much and pet the rats and mice think it is time for
so often, and it is considerably like her. them to leave. This is, no doubt, a very
It will become just as tame under gentle prudent step on the part of said rats and
treatment. Like pussy, it has a good mice, for, altogether likely they would
appetite for mice and rats, and birds too, soon be eaten up, if they did not clear
we are sorry to say; and it prefers to out. But some people are of the opinion
hunt by night rather than by day. When that they leave the premises to the new
a captive it does not refuse vegetable comers-the Genets-because the odor
food; in fact it will live on it wholly if of the latter is offensive to them. It
it can get nothing better. It has sharp seems to us, however, that rats and mice
claws like pussy, which it can conceal at are not so extra particular about hav-
pleasure, and using which, it can climb ing everything around them smell sweet,
trees quite nimbly. that they need to leave on this account.
 The Genets belong to the family of The animals or the people are pretty
Ferrets, and to the common Genet, Lin- scarce that make up their minds to re-
naeus gave the name of Viverra Genctta. main when there is every probability
It is quite a pretty little animal of ashen that they will be torn to pieces and de-
gray color, with black spots on its body, voured by some fierce enemy. Still, it
and a long tail ornamented with white is true that Miss Genet has a slight odor
and black rings. It is not quite so large which is not altogether agreeable, but
as pussy, its body being about a foot she will hardly compare in this respect
long and its tail of equal length, with her cousin, the Civet, which has
 There is another kind of Genet, of red- been made much of in some parts of
 dish gray color, and brown bands and the world, just because of its odor.
 spots on the body and legs, and a tail not The Civet is found wild in Northern
 so highly ornamented. Africa; its length is about two and one
 The Genet is found wild in the south- half feet and its height fifteen inches.
 ern part of Europe and in Africa, from As in the Genet, the tail makes up half
 Barbary to the Cape of Good Hope. the length. Its prevailing color is yellow
 In these countries it is also domesti- or dun, spotted wi'h black, and in many
 cated and answers much the same pur- respects it resembles pussy.
 pose as cats do with us. We suppose it The most curious thing about it is its