JACKALS, ETC. 277 



tail swaying gently about as it trod lightly from 

 place to place entirely absorbed in its occupation. 

 Presently, however, the distant sound of a carriage 

 startled it, and it went off stealthily into the cane- 

 brake. Small civet-cats, Viverricula malaccensis, 

 abound everywhere, and are often to be met with 

 even in the densest parts of the town. At one 

 time they were constant inhabitants of the Presi- 

 dency Gaol, and used often to rear young families 

 in retreats beneath the basements of some of the 

 buildings. 



Palm-civets, Paradoxurus niger, are seldom long 

 absent from the suburban gardens of Calcutta, and 

 occasionally make their appearance well within the 

 limits of the town. They are wonderfully fearless 

 animals, and a pair of them once disturbed a seance 

 of the Asiatic Society of Bengal by rushing through 

 the meeting-room in amatory conflict. Their eyes 

 are strangely luminous in dim light, much more 

 so than those of almost any other animals save 

 death's-head moths. The arrival of a palm-civet in 

 a small urban garden is at once advertised by the 

 development of a huge hubbub among the resident 

 crows, who never fail to mob the visitor, spending 

 hours of delightful excitement in alternately crowd- 

 ing in around him and then flying suddenly out amid 

 torrents of bad language from the place in which 

 he may have chosen to spend the day a place which 

 is usually situated in the crown of some tall palm. 



