Mustelline

The mustelline group — weasels, otters, minks, badgers, skunks, martens, wolverenes, etc. — are not abundantly preserved as fossils, but their record goes back to the Oligocene, when the types were generalized and quite different from the living ones.

The mesenteric lymph nodes in this mustelline species are several, and not amalgamated into a single large mass as seen in some carnivores.

The massiveness of the damage they had inflicted upon other humans – the hysterical, almost manic, sustained attacks that characterize the mustelline family when the killer instinct is somehow aroused, precluded any possibility of allowing them liberty; the most I could do was occasionally to take them for a walk – separately, for they hated each other – and to employ staff to look after them, for I could not always be at Camusfeàrna.

The mustelline access of emotion that may turn to such terrible violence was now all affection and desire for reassurance; he squirmed and writhed and put his fingers in my mouth and ears; he put his mouth to mine and sought the animal exchange of saliva.