80 NATURAL HISTORY IN ANECDOTE.

remarkable instinct unearths them from the banks of rivers
where they have been deposited.
Dormant Though perfectly tame in captivity, the natural
Instinet. instincts of the ichneumon are only dormant, as
the following illustration will show. M. d’Obsonville says, in his
“Essay on the Nature of Various Animals”, “I had an ichneu-
mon very young, which I brought up. I fed it at first with
milk, and afterwards with baked meat, mixed with rice. It
soon became even tamer than a cat; for it came when called,
and followed me, though at liberty, into the country. One
day I brought to him a small water serpent alive, being
desirous to know how far his instinct would carry him, against
a being with which he was hitherto totally unacquainted. His
first emotion seemed to be astonishment, mixed with anger:
for his hair became erect; but in an instant after, he slipped
behind the reptile, and, with remarkable swiftness and agility,
leaped upon its head, seized it, and crushed it between his
teeth. This essay, and new aliment, seemed to have awakened
in him his innate and destructive voracity, which, till then,
had given way to the gentleness he had acquired from his
education. I had about my house several curious kinds of
fowls, among which he had been brought up, and which, till
then, he had suffered to go and come unmolested and unre-
garded; but, a few days after, when he found himself alone,
he strangled them every one, eat a little, and, as it appeared,
drank the blood of two.”
The Aard The Aard Wolf of South Africa, is the sole
Wolf. genus and species of the Protelidz family. It
much resembles the hyzena in appearance and habit, and
feeds on carrion and white ants.
The Hyene. Lhe Hyzna, though long treated as a member
of the dog family, is now separately classified as the
Hyeenide, a tamily of one genus and three species, all of
which are found in Africa. The Hyzena is also found in
Egypt, Arabia, Persia and other parts of Asia. He has