The habits of the Ichneumon present a sort of admixture of those of the ferret and the cat; like the former, it delights in blood, and where it has once fastened itself, maintains a tenacious hold; but like the latter, and unlike the former, it has but little stomach for braving danger, and will rather go without its dinner than run the chance of a battle in obtaining it. He is strictly a nocturnal animal, and usually remains in his covert until the shades of evening begin to fall around, when he sallies forth on his career of havoc and blood. Were it not necessary for the satisfying of his appetite, I doubt whether he would leave his haunt at all, so timid is he: he steals along the ground with light and cautious steps, his motions resembling the gliding of the snake rather than the progressive steps of the quadruped. His sharp, vigilant, sparkling black eyes are anxiously reconnoitring every side of him, and carefully examining the character and bearings of every object which meets his view; stealthily he creeps along until he comes upon the spot where the crocodile has hidden her eggs in the sand; nimbly and cleverly he pounces upon them, guided to their place of concealment by his exquisite sense of smell, and, biting a hole in their side, banquets on their contents. It is thus that the Ichneumon thins the numbers of that formidable reptile the crocodile, not by directing its attacks against that creature himself, but by insidiously searching after and destroying his embryo offspring. The Ichneumon likewise kills and devours with extreme greediness such small snakes and lizards as are common in its native country, many of which are highly dangerous, and all annoying enough to make their destruction desirable, to which the Ichneumon appears guided by a powerful instinct. It is sometimes bitten in these encounters, when it is said immediately to search for and devour the root of a certain plant, said to be an antidote against the bite of the most venomous reptile. It is alleged that this little animal will frequently kill even the Cobra di Capello. Lucan in his Pharsalia describes the manner in which it contrives to destroy the Asp, one of the most poisonous serpents in existence. The passage I refer to has been translated thus:-- Thus oft, the Ichneumon on the banks of Nile Invades the deadly Aspic by a wile; While artfully his slender tail is play’d, The serpent darts upon the dancing shade. Then turning on the foe with swift surprise, Full on the throat the nimble seizer flies. The gasping snake expires beneath the wound, His gushing jaws with poisonous floods abound, And shed the fruitless mischief on the ground.