THE PALM-CIVETS 



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 insects. In confinement it will also eat plantains, boiled rice, bread and 

 milk, etc. Colonel Sykes mentions that it is very fond of cockroaches. Now and 

 then it will commit depredations on some poultry-yard, and I have often known it 

 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 at Trichinopoli 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 in the day. It hunted for rats, shrews, 

 and lizards. Their activity in climbing is very great, and they used to ascend and 

 descend my house at one of the corners in a most surprising manner. ' ' This palm- 

 civet is common in L,ower Bengal, and in the gardens of the suburban residences of 



THE MALAY PALM-CIVET. 



(One-seventh natural size.) 



Calcutta may occasionally be seen in the late afternoon or evening crawling among 

 the leaves of a palm previous to starting on its nocturnal wanderings. That it will 

 sometimes take up its quarters in the very heart of the town of Calcutta is proved 

 by an incident which happened to the present writer when on the staff of the Geo- 

 logical Survey of India. At that time (1874) the office of the Survey was situated 

 in a street leading down to the Hughli, in the old part of the city. On arriving at 

 the office he found his papers on the writing table marked every morning with the 

 footprints of some Mammal. He thereupon procured a packing-case, which he con- 

 verted into a 4-trap, and set, properly baited, one night in his room. Next morning 

 he found that the box had fallen, with a tenant inside. The tube of a sulphureted- 

 hydrogen bottle was then inserted through a hole bored in the side of the box, and 

 the latter, after an interval, lifted, when, the dead body of a palm-civet was disclosed. 

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