NATURAL HISTORY. 305 



characteristics are peculiar to the civet. Some tra- 

 vellers had already suspected that there were two spe- 

 cies of civets ; but no person had distinguished them 

 with sufficient accuracy to describe them. 



These animals have been called musk-cats, or civet- 

 cats : yet they have nothing in common with the cat: 

 they rather resemble the fox, especially ia the head. 

 Their coat is diversified with stripes and spots ; a cir- 

 cumstance which has occasioned them to be mistaken 

 for small panthers, by persons who had only seen them 

 at a distance. In every other respect, however, they 

 differ from the panther. The perfume of the civet is 

 very strong, and that of the zibet is strong to an excess. 



This humour is found in the opening which each of 

 these animals has near the parts of generation ; and 

 though the odour is so strong, it is yet agreeable, even 

 when it issues from the body of the animal. The 

 perfume of the civet we must not confound with musk, 

 which is a sanguineous humour obtained from an ani- 

 mal altogether different from either the civet, or the 

 zibet. The animal that furnishes the musk is a kind of 

 roe-buck without antlers, or goat without horns; nor 

 does it possess any property in common with the civet 

 but that of furnishing a strong perfume. 



The civets, though natives of the hottest climates 

 of Africa, and of Asia, are yet capable of living in 

 temperate, and even in cold countries, if they are care- 

 fully defended from the injuries of the air, and provid- 

 ed with delicate and succulent food. In Holland, 

 vyhere no small emolument is derived from their per- 

 fume, they are frequently reared. The perfume of 

 Amsterdam is esteemed preferable to that which is 

 brought from the Levant, or the Indies, which is ge- 

 nerally less genuine. That which is imported from 



Vol. I. P p 



