VIVERRIDsE 527 



elongated so as to form a sort of crest or mane ; neck with a black 

 gorget. Pupil circular when contracted. Perineal glands greatly 

 developed. These characters apply especially to V. civetta, the 

 African Civet, or " Civet-Cat " as it is commonly called, an animal 

 rather larger than a common Fox, and an inhabitant of intra- 

 tropical Africa. V. zibetha, the Indian Civet, of about equal size, 

 inhabits Bengal, China, the Malay Peninsula, and adjoining islands. 

 V. tangalunga, from Java, Sumatra, Borneo, and the Philippines, 



FIG. 232. The left upper dentition of the Indian Civet (Viverra zibetJuC). From the 

 Palceontologia Indica. 



and V. megaspila, from Burma, are smaller but nearly allied 

 animals ; the latter being more distinctly spotted than either of the 

 others. From these species and the next the civet of commerce, 

 once so much admired as a perfume in England, and still largely 

 used in the East, is obtained. The animals are kept in cages, and 

 the odoriferous secretion collected from the interior of the perineal 

 follicles with a spoon or spatula. 



The Rasse or Lesser Indian Civet (V, malaccensis) may be re- 

 garded as the representative of a distinct group of Fiverra, although 

 often referred to a separate genus (Fiverricula). The size of this 

 animal is smaller than in the typical group, the build is slighter, the 

 muzzle finer, the claws sharper and more curved, and there is no 

 erectile mane along the back. Generally there is an alisphenoid 

 canal in the skull ; and the anterior chamber of the auditory bulla is 

 much more inflated than the hinder one, so that the apparent length 

 of the whole bulla is increased. This species is found over the 

 greater part of India, and extends to the Malay Peninsula and 

 Southern China. 



Large species of Fiverra occur in the Pleistocene and Pliocene of 

 India, and also in the Pliocene of France, which approximate in 

 some characters of the dentition to the extinct genus Ictitherium, 

 mentioned at the end of the family. Species of this genus have 

 also been described from the Miocene and Upper Eocene of Europe. 

 The Lower Miocene V. antiqua has an alisphenoid canal, and all the 

 other cranial characters of the typical forms. 



Fossa. 1 The Fossa of Madagascar comes so close to the Rasse 

 1 Gray, Proc. ZooL Soc. 1864, p. 518. 



