THE BINTURONG. 24 1 



The genus is represented solely by the following Oriental 

 species. 



I. THE BINTURONG. ARCTICTIS BINTURONG. 



Viverra binhcrong, Raffles, Linn. Trans, vol.xiii. p. 253 (1822). 

 Paradoxurus albifrons, F. Cuvier, Mem. Mus. Paris, vol. ix. 



p. 48 (1822). 

 Ictides albifrons, Valenciennes, Ann. Sci. Nat. vol. iv. p. 57 



(1824). 

 L tides ater, F. Cuvier, Hist. Nat. Mamm. pt. xliv. (1824). 

 Arctictis binturong, Temminck, Monogr. Mamm. vol. ii. p. 308 



(1835) ; Blanford, Mamm. Brit. India, p. 118 (1888). 

 Arctictis penicillatus, Miiller, Verhandl. Nat. Gesch. p. 32 



(1839). 



Characters. — Tail nearly as long as the head and body, thick 

 at the root, and clothed with straggling bristly hairs exceeding 

 in length those on the body ; fur as described above. Colour 

 uniformly black throughout, although more or less grizzled on 

 the head and outer surface of the fore-limbs, and, in some 

 examples, over the whole body ; margins of ears white, but the 

 terminal tufts black. In the young the hairs have long rufous 

 or grey tips. Length of head and body, from 28 to 33 inches ; 

 of tail, 26 to 27 inches. 



Distribution.— The Himalaya from Simla to Assam, Burma, 

 Siam, the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Borneo,* and Java. 



Habits.— As might be predicated from its fully prehensile tail 

 (a feature unknown in any other placental Old World Mammal), 

 the Bear-Cat, as this animal is frequently termed, is thoroughly 

 arboreal in its habits, frequenting dense forests, and in conse- 

 quence of the nature of its haunts and nocturnal mode of life, 

 but seldom seen, at least by Europeans. Somewhat slow in its 

 movements, the Binturong is undoubtedly capable of suspend- 

 ing itself by its tail after the fashion of the American Monkeys, 

 * Everett, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1893, p. 495- 



7 R 



