MAMMALS. 



685 



pouch, and serves to call the sexes together at the pairing season. Excite- 

 ment of any sort increases the amount, and so, to obtain it from the civei 

 of Africa and the rasse of Japan, the animal is confined in a sum II cage, 

 without chance of turning round, while the pouch is scraped with a spoon. 

 This enrages the animal, and an increased amount is secreted, but there is 

 no chance for the angry beast to use its teeth. In the case of the genette, 



I ■ .'WTndtJ- 90 ' 



Fig. 526. — Brown hyeua {Hytena brunnea). 



which has no pouch, the musk is scraped from the bars of the cage, on 

 which the annual rubs itself. Civets and genettes are too irritable to make 

 very desirable pets, and yet they are frequently kept about the house, like 

 cats, to free it from rats and mice. 



In these respects they are excelled by many of the ichneumons, ani- 

 mals almost as characteristic of Africa as the civets are of the Asiatic 



