The 



THE CIVET. 



Viverra Civetta. Linnaus. 



PLATE XXX. THE CIVET- 



The Civet is from two to three feet in length, stands from 

 ten to twelve inches high, and has a tail half the length of 

 its body. The hair is long, and the ground color of it is a 

 brownish gray, interspersed with numerous transverse, 

 interrupted bands or irregular spots of black. Along the 

 centre of the back, from between the shoulders to the end 

 of the tail, is a kind of mane, which can be erected or 

 depressed as the animal pleases, and which is formed of 

 black hairs, longer than those of the body. The sides of 

 the neck and the upper lip are nearly white. The legs, 

 and the greater part of the tail, are perfectly black ; there 

 is a large, black patch round each eye, which passes thence 

 to the corner of the mouth ; and two or three bands of the 

 same color stretch obliquely from the base of the ears to- 

 wards the shoulders arid neck, the latter of which is mark- 

 ed with a black patch. 



The perfume of the civet is very strong ; and though the 

 odor 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 

 humor, obtained from an animal altogether different from 

 either the civet or the zibet. 



The civets, though natives of the hottest climates of 

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

 and even in cold countries, provided they are carefully 

 defended from the injuries of the air, and provided with 

 delicate and esculent food. In Holland, where no small 

 emolument is derived from their perfume, they are fre- 

 quently reared. The perfume of Amsterdam is esteemed 

 preferable to that which is brought from the Levant, or the 



