286 THE STORY OF THE LIN SANG. 



The spotted linsang, which is found from the Southeastern Himalaya tO' 

 Yunan, is a somewhat smaller animal; the length of the head and body being 

 only fifteen inches. It is readily distinguished by its coloration ; the back being 

 marked with rows of large oblong spots, instead of bands. 



A tame specimen of this beautiful animal was once kept by a Mr. Hodgson 

 in Nipal. He describes it as very docile, fond of notice, and never giving vent 

 to any kind of sound. It was free from the strong odor characteristic of the 

 true civets, and was fed upon raw meat. He states that in its wild condition 

 this species is equally at home on trees and on the ground; and that it dwells 

 and breeds in the hollows of decayed trees. It preys chiefly upon small birds, 

 upon which it is wont to pounce from the coover oi the grass. 



The African linsang, of which some of the distinctive characters have been 

 already mentioned, is foimd only on the West Coast, in Sierra Leone and 

 Fernando' Po, and is, therefore, widely separated from its Oriental relatives. 

 The tail is somewhat longer than the head and body, measuring upwards of 

 forty and one-half inches; whereas the total length of the head and body is but 

 thirty-eight inchea. The spots, as already mentioned, are smaller than in the 

 Oriental linsangs, and, with the exception of some stripes on the back of the 

 head, and a line extending from the neighborhood of the ear tO' the shoulder, 

 do not run together into lines or patches. The tail is peculiar in that the light 

 rings separating the large dark bands are divided in the middle by very narrow 

 dark rings. 



