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On Change of Colour in a Specimen of Mellivora ratel living in the Society's Gardens

1909; Zoological Society of London; Volume: 79; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/j.1469-7998.1910.tb06978.x

0370-2774

F. D. Welch,

Bird parasitology and diseases

removed ; it held the nut under its body with some of its walking legs while it walked off raised high on the tips of the others."These animes are easily frightened and scuttle off backwards, propelling themselves with their long anterior legs in a series of ungainly jerks.They seem quite conscious of 'the comparative defencelessness of the abdomen, which they endeavour to thrust under logs or into holes among the roots of trees.They never carry any protective covering onthe abdominal region, although in the Cambridge Natural History (vol.iv.p. 174), it is stated that they may sometimes employ an empty coconut shell for this purpose.No authority is given for this statement, nor does there appear to be any reference to it in previously published accounts, and from what I have seen I should think that the thing is an impossibility.A species of Cenobita, a closely allied genus, has been described as using a coconut shell for this purpose, and a figure of it carrying one is given in Prof.