PARADOXl'RUS. 113 



Colour. Grey throughout, without markings on the body, the 

 lower parts paler and whitish. Underfur brownish grey or dusky, 

 paler towards the base, longer hairs whitish grey towards the end, 

 the tips on the upper parts black. Frequently, though not always, 

 the terminal half of the tail is dusky or blackish ; feet usually 

 brown. Head, including ears and chin, brown or blackish, with 

 the exception of the forehead, a broad band beneath each ear, a 

 narrower line down the nose, and a blotch or spot below each eye, 

 where white hairs are conspicuously intermixed, but there is some 

 variation in their proportion and distribution. Vibrissae (whiskers) 

 mostly white, some of the uppermost black. 



Some specimens have a yellowish or brownish tinge, especially 

 on the rump, thighs, and base of the tail. 



Dimensions. Head and body 24 to 25 inches, tail with hair at 

 the end about the same; weight 9 to 10 Ibs. A very old skull 

 measures 4-4 inches in basal length, 2-7 in zygomatic breadth. 



Distribution. Throughout the Eastern Himalayas in Assam, 

 Sikhim, and Nepal, and as far west as Simla, whence a specimen 

 was obtained by Mr. Hume. Surgeon-General L. C. Stewart in- 

 forms me he shot an individual near Landour, at an elevation of 

 7500 feet. This species also occurs in Arakan and the Andaman 

 Islands, but not I believe in the Peninsula of India, some reported 

 occurrences being probably due to mistaken identification. 



Varieties. Some skins in the British Museum sent by Mr. 

 Hodgson have short woolly fur, and are of a yellowish-brown 

 colour. I believe them to be either a variety of P. grayi or 

 perhaps dyed skins. The thinness and shortness of the fur show 

 that the specimens were derived from a warm region, probably from 

 near the base of the Himalayas. I have similar skins from Sikhim. 

 The skull from one of Mr. Hodgson's skins is precisely similar to 

 those of P. grayi. 



The Andaman form P. tytleri is slightly smaller in size, but does 

 not appear otherwise to differ. The head and body, according to 

 the describer, measured 21 inches, tail 20 ; a stuffed skin in the 

 British Museum is a little larger. The skull from the latter is 

 4*45 inches long, 2*65 broad. 



Habits. We are indebted almost entirely to Mr. Hodgson's re- 

 searches for a knowledge of this animal's habits. It is more fru- 

 givorous than the common palm-civet, but, like that species, feeds 

 partly on animal, partly on vegetable food, and captures birds and 

 small mammals. It lives and breeds in holes of trees, four young 

 having been found on one occasion, and it inhabits mountain 

 forests. In the Andaman Islands the smaller variety is said to do 

 much havoc amongst pine-apples. 



This species appears to be eavsily tamed. A tame individual 

 kept by Hodgson was " very cleanly, and its body emitted no un- 

 pleasant smell, though, when it was irritated, it exhaled a most 

 fetid stench, caused by the discharge of a thin yellow fluid from 

 four pores, two of which are placed on each side of the anal aper- 

 ture," the orifices, in short, of the anal glands. McMaster in his 

 ' Notes on Jerdon,' p. 37, relates how his servants and dogs were 



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