KNOWLEDGE 



[January, 1902 



somewhat similar appearance, but smaller, much more 

 hairy, and without the white scales and triangT.ilar 

 patches, is also met with in this country, though perhaps 

 not quito so commonly. It is sometimes called the July 

 Bug (If/ii:otrof/iis so/Ktitidiirt), and lias habits similar to 

 those of Melolonllia. Another insect, nearly allied to 

 these, and much handsomer, is that known as 

 P/n/Uiipfr/Jin hortirola. It goes by a variety of local 

 and popular names, such as bracken clock, fernwcb, 

 fernshaw beetle. It is considerably smaller than cither 

 of tho others, hairy, and with a metallic green thorax 

 and reddish wing covers. It sometimes does considerable 

 damage to gardens, as well as to pasture land. It is 

 often found in strawberry beds, and is particularly 

 common in the eastern counties. Canon Fowler says 

 that this beetle is a good bait for trout, chub, and other 

 freshwater fish. The common cockchafer, as being an 

 easily procurable insect, has been often iised as a typical 

 instance of insect structure ; its anatomy was very fully 

 worked out by Strauss-Diirckheim, and it has been used 

 for experiments in insect locomotion. 



ANIMAL PERFUMES AND THEIR ORIGIN. 



By R. Lydekkee. 

 Although fashionable enough in former days, the three 

 chief perfumes of animal origin, namely, civet, amber- 

 gris, and musk, have steadily declined in popular favoiu- 

 in their unmixed condition, and are now chiefly em- 

 ployed to form a basis for other scents of a less power- 

 ful nature. All three are products of mammals, and 

 all appear to have been known from very ancient times 

 indeed, although much misconception was long prevalent 

 with regard to the real origin and nature of the second. 

 Nowadays naturalists ai'e almost universally in the 

 habit of calling the animals from which the first^named 

 of the three is obtained " civets," although in popular 

 language they are termed " civet-cats." Apparently 

 there is little doubt that the latter usage is correct, the 

 name civet being properly applicable to the perfume 

 itself i-ather than to the animal by which it is secreted. 

 In a well known dictionary we find, for instance, the 

 following : — 



" Civet, m. [Fr. eiveiie; Ar. and Per. zabad.'] The sweet scent 

 of any beast ; a semi-fluid substance taken from under the tail of the 

 civet-cat and used as a ])erfume. vt. To scent with civet; to perfume." 

 " CivETCAT, n. The animal that produces civet." 

 Again, in Shakespeai'e and other early writers the 

 word civet is invariably employed to designate the per- 

 fume itself. 



Of civet-cats, to give them their full title, there are 

 several distinct species, the typical representative of 

 the group (Viverra civetta) being African, while the 

 others are inhabitants of India and the Malay countries. 

 These animals, the largest of which is about the size 

 of a cat, while the smallest may be compared with a 

 pine-marten in size, are near relatives of the genet and 

 the palm-civets, and more distant cousins of the 

 mongooses. Their affinities with the cat tribe are com- 

 paratively remote, although, in spite of their long and 

 pointed muzzles, they are much more closely related 

 to those animals than they are to the dogs. They 

 ai-e coarse-haired, flat-sided creatures with small ears, 

 partially retractile claws, a long tapering tail, and 

 generally a crest of long hairs ninning down tlie middle 

 of tho nape and back. The ground-colour of the fur is 

 gi-eyish, upon which are streaks or blotches of black 

 or blackish brovni, the tail being ringed with black. 

 The most striking and characteristic feature of their 

 coloration is, perhaps, the black gorget on the throat. 



Tho civet, which is a white fatty substance, is con- 

 tained in two small pouches, or infoldings of the skin, 

 situated beneath the base of the tail. 



To obtain the civet the animals are kept in con- 

 finement enclosed in long cages so narrow that they 

 cannot turn round. Two or three times a week the 

 back of the cage is opened, and the animal dragged 

 by its tail close up to a cross-bar, when the civet is 

 carefully scraped out of the pouches by means of a 

 wooden spoon or spatula. When collected the perfume 

 is carefully enclosed in an air-tight vessel. The amount 

 of civet yielded depends, it is said, to some extent 

 upon the food on which the animal is fed. If the 

 civet be not periodically removed, some of it is dis- 

 charged by the animal itself; and the walls of the 

 cages of the civet-cats in the Zoological Gardens arc 

 frequently smeared with this odoriferous substance, 

 which is cai'efully collected by the keepers. 



A very largo amount of commercial civet is yielded 

 by the large African civet-cat, already mentioned, but 

 the large Indian species, or zibeth {Viverra zihetlia), 

 which derives its name from a corruption of the Arabic 

 and Persian designation of the perfume, is probably 

 equally prolific in this respect. The smaller oriental 

 civets, the smallest of which — the rasse — has been in- 

 troduced into Madagascar, yield, of course, a less amount 

 of this valuable substance. 



Formerly, at any rate, civet-cats were kept in Holland 

 for the sake of their perfume, as is attested by the 

 following extract from Hutton's translation of Buffon's 

 Natui'al History, published in 1823: — 



" In Holland, where no small emolument is derived 

 from their perfume, they are frequently reared. The 

 perfume of Amsterdam is esteemed preferable to that 

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

 is generally less genuine. That which is imported from 

 Guinea would be the best of any, were it not that the 

 negroes, as well as the Indians, and the people of the 

 Levant, adulterate it with mixtures of laudanum, 

 storax, and other balsamic and odorous drugs." 



Roughly speaking, about twenty thousand ounces of 

 civet are annually imported into London ; of pure Jeddah 

 civet the value is eight shillings and sixpence per ounce, 

 of " commercial " civet seven shillings. 



Very different to civet, both in character and in 

 origin, is the substance known as ambergTis. The name 

 of this very remarkable substance is of French origin, 

 amhre-(iris, signifying grey amber, or rather perhaps 

 grey pei-fume, the word amber itself (Fr. amhre) 

 referring to the odoriferous qualities of the substance it 

 designates, as is exemplified by the verb amhre, to 

 perfume. 



Ambergris is generally found floating on the surface 

 of the sea, and vei-y different ideas have been enter- 

 tained as to its natui'e and origin. It appears, how- 

 ever, that so early as the middle of the sixteenth 

 century it was known to have some connection with 

 whales ; although the nature of this connection was 

 not fully realised. One writer, for instance, in describ- 

 ing a sperm-whale stranded on the Norfolk coast, 

 expresses his surprise at not finding ambergris in its 

 stomach. Although the idea that ambergris is swallowed 

 by the spei-m-whale is eiToneous, the writer in question 

 was quite correct in regarding that substance as per- 

 taining to this particular species of cetacean. 



A century later the original idea of the association 

 of ambergris with whales seems, however, to have been 

 abandoned in favour of a notion that it was the gum 

 of a tree. On the other hand, in an eai-ly edition of 



