PARADOXURUS MUSANGA. 127 



and Malabar coast, wliere it is popularly called tlie Toddy-cat, in conse- 

 quence of its supposed fondness for tlie juice of the palm {TaH, H., 

 toddy, Anglic^), a fact which appears of general acceptation both in India 

 and Ceylon (where it is called the palm cat), and which appears to have 

 some foundation. Kelaart says it " is a well established fact that it is a 

 consumer of palm-toddy." It lives much on trees, especially on the 

 Palmyra and cocoa-nut palms, and is often found to have taken up its 

 residence in the thick thatched roofs of native houses. I found a large 

 colony of them established among the rafters of my own house at Telli- 

 cherry. It is also occasionally found in dry drains, outhouses, and 

 other places of shelter. It is quite nocturnal, issuing forth at dark, and 

 living by preference on animal food, rats, lizards, small birds, poultry, 

 and eggs ; but it also freely partakes of vegetable food, fruit, and in- 

 sects. In confinement it will eat plantains, boiled rice, bread and milk, 

 ghee, &c. Colonel Sykes mentions that it is very fond of cockroaches. 

 Now and then it will commit depredations in some poultry-yard, and I 

 have often known them taken in traps baited with a pigeon or a 

 chicken. In the South of India it is very often tamed, and becomes 

 quite domestic, and even affectionate in its manners. One I saw, many 

 years ago, at Trichinopoly went about quite at large, and late every 

 night used to work itself under the pillow of its owner, roll itself up 

 into a ball, with its tail coiled round its body, and sleep till a late hour 

 of the day. It hunted for rats, shrews, and house lizards. Their 

 activity in climbing is very great, and they used to ascend and descend 

 my house at one of the corners of the building in a most surprising 

 manner. 



One, 20 inches long, examined by Kelaart, had the small intestines 

 5 feet 4 inches long, the large do. 9 inches ; csecum |ths ; liver with 

 seven lobes, &c. &c. 



Hodgson has described several new species lately, of which P. strictus 

 and P. quadriscriptus appear to be merely varieties of colour of P. 

 Musanga. They are figured at plates 47 and 48 of the Proc. Zool. Soc. 

 for 1856. Blyth described the skull of one from the Andaman Islands, 

 which had peculiarly large canines. It may possibly be the species 

 lately described by Colonel Tytler, Journ. As. Soc. for 1865, and named 

 after himself, Paradoxurus Tytleri, From the description, it is evi- 

 dently nearly related to P. Musanga. 



The two next species were formerly classed under the genus Faguma, 



