Phil Robinson

“ A creature with a mouth no larger than a domestic cat, teeth that are far from formidable, and no claws, strikes down like lightning a well-built man, and mangles him to death so instantaneously, that “though the next moment” thirty spears all together transfix the “protocrypta,” the well-built man is a corpse! ”

“ Most people, I find, still believe in the legend that the mongoose is proof against serpent-poison; but such is not the case. A snake when it strikes always calculates its blow so that the fangs shall reach the object aimed at. It would be a fool if it did anything else. But when the mongoose attacks the snake it does so with all its long thick fur on end, looking twice the size it really is, and the result is that the reptile is deceived. ”

“ At the farther end of the room, among other creatures, is the coati, a pugnacious and inquisitive little animal, extraordinarily rapid in its leaping, which it accompanies with a quick sharp cry, while along the other wall are ranged the mongooses, among the most interesting of snake-eaters, from the superstitions that attach to them. ”

“ Nor is the House named happily. “Lesser” would be better than “small,” and “tiger-cats' house” better than either. Nine-tenths of the people who venture in (handkerchief to nose) are puzzled when perhaps the first thing they see is the common English weasel, and the next a row of mongooses. As for the actual “cats” that are there, they are “small” as compared to the cheetah (the smallest felis in the lion-house, where the “big” cats live) , but still they are of the baronetage, it not actually of the peerage, of the Furred Folk. ”

“ It is an insignificant beast, like a magnified polecat or sable, with an extraordinarily long tail. Very restless in its habits, but quite ready to be fed from the hand by any passing stranger. However, there is a Frenchman, called Hamelin, who says that he has had most remarkable adventures in Madagascar, but unfortunately his style of narrative is so unconvincing that until he has been corroborated no one is very likely to believe him. ”

“ It is exceedingly agile, and the moment its victim approaches it slides silently down and in one bound is on top of it—a picture of wild ferocity. At night big fires had to be constantly kept up and men had to take the watch. ”

“ If a fresh cobra, for instance, were to bite, say, four persons in equally good health one after the other, the first would certainly die, the second might or might not recover, the third and fourth certainly would. ”

“ The most terrible of all is the Protocrypta ferox Madagascariensis.” (Protocrypta for Cryptoprocta is distinctly good.) “During the daytime it is extremely dangerous, for it crouches in the forks of trees, hidden among the rich tropical foliage and climbing plants and watching for its prey. ”