J THE BINTURONG. 241 
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The genus is represented solely by the following Oriental 
species. 
I. THE BINTURONG. ARCTICTIS BINTURONG. 
Viverra binturong, Raffles, Linn. Trans. vol. xiii. p. 253 (1822). 
Paradoxurus albifrons, ¥. Cuvier, Mém. 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 penticillatus, Miller, 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 forelimbs, 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. 
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