THE MUSANG. 247 
One of these animals, which was kept in the Paris Museum, was accustomed to sleep 
during the day, coiled round upon its bed, and even by night appeared to feel a distaste 
for exertion. When evening came on, it would rouse itself from its shunbers, take food 
and drink, and again resign itself to sleep. 
MUSANG.—Paradoxviirus Musanga. 
The Musane of Java is, although a destroyer of rats and mice, rather a pest to 
the coffee-plantations, which it ravages in such a manner as to have earned the title 
of the Coffee Rat. It feeds largely upon the berries of the coffee shrub, choosing 
only the ripest fruit, stripping them of their membranous covering, and so eating 
them. It is a remarkable fact that the berries thus eaten appear to undergo no change by 
the process of digestion, so that the natives, who are free from over scrupulous prejudic OS, 
collect the rejected berries, and are thus saved the trouble of picking and clearing them 
from the husk. 
However, the injury which this creature does to the coffee berries is more than com- 
pensated by its very great usefulness as a coffee planter. For, as these berries are 
uninjured in their passage through the body of the animal, and are in their ripest state, 
they take root where they lie, and in due course of time spring up and form new coffee 
plantations, sometimes in localities where they are not expected. It may be that although 
the coffee seeds undergo no visible change in ae interior of the Musane, they imbibe the 
animal principle, and thus become more fitted for the soil than if they had been planted 
without the intermediate agency of the creature. 
The Musang is not content with coffee-berries and other vegetable food, although it 
seems to prefer a vegetable to an animal diet. When pressed by hunger, it seeks eagerly 
after various small quadrupeds and birds, and is often a pertinacious ‘robber of the hen- 
roosts. 
The habits of the Musang are well described by G. Bennett, in his “ Wanderings in 
New South Wales :”— 
“On the 14th of May, 1833, I purchased one of these animals from a native canoe, 
which came off to the ship on the coast of Java. It is commonly known among 
Europeans by the name of the ‘Java Cat,’ and is a native of Java, Sumatra, and 
perhaps other of the eastern Islands. This specimen was young and appeared very 
tame. The native from whom I procured it, had it enclosed in a bamboo cage, in which 
I also kept it for a short time. The colour of the back is blackish, intermingled with 
black; neck and abdomen of a yellowish colour; the eyes are full and large, of a 
yellowish brown colour; pupil perpendicular, becoming dilated at night. It resembles 
the cat in being more of a night than a day animal. 
