232 CARNIVORA. 



Pougoune, and has a coarser and shorter fur, whicli presents great varie- 

 ties of color in different specimens. 



The MuSANG is, although a destroyer of rats and mice, a great pest 

 to the coffee-plantations, which it ravages in such a manner as to have 

 earned the additional title of the " Coffee Rat." It feeds largely upon 

 the berries of the coffee-shrub, and 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 prejudices, collect 

 the rejected berries, and are thus saved the trouble of picking and clear- 

 ing them from the husk. However, the injury which this creature does 

 to the coffee-berries is more than compensated by its very great useful- 

 ness as a coffee-planter. For, as these berries are uninjured in their pas- 

 sage 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 ex- 

 pected. The Musang is not content with coffee-berries and other vege- 

 table 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- 



GENUS PAGUMA. 



This genus containing three species is found in Nepaul, China and 

 Borneo, and Singapore. 



The Masked Paguma, Pagmna larvata, used to be placed among the 

 weasels, and called the Masked Glutton. The name Larvata or Masked, 

 is given to it on account of the white streak down the forehead and nose, 

 and the white circle round the eyes, which gives the creature an aspect 

 as if it was endued with an artificial mask. There is a pale olive-gray 

 band extending from the back of each ear and meeting under the throat, 

 and the general color of the fur is an olive-brown, sprinkled w ith gray. 

 In China it bears the name of Yu-min-mao. It is a good climber of 

 trees and is nocturnal in its habits. The other species are the White 

 Whiskered Paguma and the Woollv Paguma. 



The genera we have hitherto described have been formed by Gray 

 into the sub-family of the Viverrin.-e ; we now proceed to his second 

 sub-family, that of the HERPESTiNyE. 



