THE FOSSA, CIVETS, AND ICHNEUMONS 79 



fhttt t) Ro 



rt D. Canon] 



BINTURONG 



[Philadtlfh,, 



The binturong is placed -with the civets. It has a pre- 

 hensile tail like the kinkajou (see page 



to her (her favourite is a sparrow), and makes her 

 usual cry, and Janet runs to her and carries off the 

 bird, which she eats, feathers and all, in a very few 

 minutes, if she is hungry." When near a farm, the 

 meerkats will devour eggs and young chickens. 

 They are also said to eat the eggs of the large 

 leopard-tortoise. The commonest is the SLENDER- 

 TAILED MEERKAT. It is found all over South Africa, 

 and is very common in the Karroo. It eats insects 

 and grubs as well as small animals, and is commonly 

 kept as a pet throughout the Colony. 



WE have now traced the long line of the 

 Carnivora from the lordly Lion, the slayer of man and 

 his flocks and herds, and the Tiger, equally formidable 

 and no less specially developed for a life of rapine on 

 a great scale, to creatures as small and insignificant 

 as the Meerkat, which is at least as much an insect- 

 feeder as a devourer of flesh, and the Ichneumons 

 and Civets. The highest form of specialisation in the 

 group is the delicate mechanism by which the chief 

 weapons of offense, the claws, are enabled to keep 



their razor edge by being drawn up into sheaths when the animal walks, but can be instantly 



thrust out at pleasure, rigid and sharp as sword -blades. The gradual process by which this 



equipment deteriorates in the Civets and disappears in the Mongoose should be noted. There 



are many other carnivora, but none so formidable as those possessing the retractile claws. Thus 



the Bears, though often larger in bulk than the Lion, are far inferior in the power of inflicting 



violent injury. At the same time such delicate mechanism is clearly not necessary for the well- 

 'being of a species. The members of the Weasel Tribe are quite as well able to take care of 



themselves as the small cats, though they have non-retractile and not very formidable claws. 



Such a very abnornal animal as the BINTURONG of which we are able to give an excellent 



photograph is doubtless rightly assigned to the place in which modern science has placed it. But 



it will be found that there are several very anomalous forms quite as detached from any general 



type as is the binturong. Nature 



does not make species on any strictly 



graduated scale. Many of these 



nondescript animals are so unlike 



any other group or family that they 



seem almost freaks of nature. The 



binturong is certainly one of these. 

 The next group with which we 



deal is that of the Hyaenas. In these 



the equipment for catching living 



prey is very weak. Speed and pursuit 



are not their metier, but the eating of 



dead and decaying animal matter, and 



the consumption of bones. Hence 



the jaws and teeth are highly de- 

 veloped, while the rest of the body 



is degenerate. 



Phott b) L. Midland, F.Z.S.} 



MONGOOSE 



'1 / Indian mongoutc is the great enemy oj snakes, 

 of the crocodile 



[North Finchlif 



species eats the eggt 



