THE TRUE CIVETS 



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The fossa (Cryptoprocta ferox] is a nearly uniformly-colored animal, with short 

 and thick, pale brown fur ; and it attains a total length of about five feet from 

 the snout to the tip of the tail, the length of the tail being more than three-quarters 

 that of the head and body. The curved claws are sharp and retractile ; and the 

 feet, each of which is furnished with five claws, are very similar to those of a cat, 

 except that the whole sole of the hind pair is naked, and applied to the ground in 

 walking. The fossa has a total of thirty-six teeth, of which the hinder ones, both 

 in form and number, closely resemble those of the cats. Thus the flesh-tooth in 

 ach jaw is cat-like, while there is but a single small molar tooth behind the flesh- 

 tooth in the upper jaw, and none in the lower jaw, the number of molars being 

 therefore y. Unlike the cats the fossa has four premolar teeth on each side of both 



THE FOSSA. 

 (One-eighth natural size.) 



jaws, and thereby resembles the typical civets, although the first of these teeth is 

 generally shed at an early age. It is a purely nocturnal creature, of a fierce dispo- 

 sition, but scarcely anything is yet known of its habits. It was exhibited in the 

 London Zoological Gardens for the first time in 1891. 



THE TRUE CIVETS 

 Genus Viverra 



The true civets, or typical representatives of the family, are at once distin- 

 guished from the fossa by the number and form of their cheek-teeth ; the total num- 

 ber of the teeth is forty, of which on each side of both the upper and lower jaws 

 three are incisors, one a canine, four premolars, and three molars. The flesh-teeth; 



