VIVERRA CIVETTA. 



prickles, and the ears are of middling size, straight, and 

 rounded at their tips. 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 towards the shoulder and neck, the latter 

 of which is marked with a black patch. The animal is wild 

 and fierce, and though sometimes tamed, is yet never thor- 

 oughly familiar. Its teeth are strong and sharp, but its claws 

 are feeble and blunt. It is light and active, and lives by prey, 

 pursuing birds and other small animals which it is able to 

 overcome. It generally attacks at night, and by surprise. 

 They are sometimes seen stealing into yards and outhouses, 

 like the fox, in order to carry off poultry. Their eyes shine in 

 the night, and it is very probable that they see better by night 

 than by day. When they fail of animal food, they are found 

 to subsist upon roots and fruits. They very seldom drink, 

 nor do they ever inhabit humid ground, but in burning sands 

 and in arid mountains they cheerfully remain. 



The civets, though natives of the hottest climates of Asia 

 and of Africa, 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 escu- 

 lent food. Persons who breed these animals for the sake of 

 their perfume, put them into a long and narrow sort of box, 

 in which they cannot turn. This box the person who is em- 

 ployed to collect the perfume opens behind for this purpose, 

 twice or thrice a week, and, dragging the animal which is con- 

 fined in it backward by the tail, he keeps it in this position 

 by a bar before. This done, he takes out the civet with a 

 small spoon, carefully scraping with it all the while, as gently 

 as possible, the interior coats of the pouch. The perfume 

 thus obtained is put into a vessel, and every care is taken to 

 keep it closely shut. The quantity which a single animal 

 will afford depends greatly upon its appetite and the quality 

 of its nourishment. It yields more in proportion as it is 

 more delicately and abundantly fed. Raw flesh hashed small, 

 eggs, rice, small animals, birds, young fowls, and particularly 

 fish, are the food in which the civet most delights. In Hol- 

 land, 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, 



3 



