Order 3. 



CARNARIA. 



73 



covered with long hair, and have a tuft at each ear. The tail is long, hairy, and has a propensity to 

 curl, as it prehensile ; [which it really is : their whiskers are long and conspicuous]. 



They are also natives of India, for the first knowledge of which we are indebted to M. du Vaucel. One species 

 {let. albifrons, F. Cuv.) is grey, with the tail and ^ides of the muzzle black ; of the size of a large Cat ; from 

 Boutan. Another (let. ater, F. Cuv.) is black, with a whitish muzzle, and as large as a stout Dog ; from Malacca. 

 [The latter is merely the male, and the other the female of the same species, which is rather a slow-moving 

 animal, allied to the last in habit, of a timid disposition, and easily tamed. The Ictide doree, F. Cuv., is a 

 species of Musang (Paradoxurtis). ] 



The Coatimondis {Nasua, Storr), — 

 To the dentition, tail [wliich however is longer], nocturnal Hfe, and slow dragging gait of the 

 Eaccoons, add a singularly elongated and moveable snout. Their feet are semi-palmate, notwith- 

 standing which they climb trees [vrith great facility, and descend them head foremost, clinging by 

 their liind feet, which they almost reverse]. Their long claws serve them to dig with ; [and they feed 

 voraciously on earth-worms, slugs and snails, also on small mammalians (which they catch adroitly), 

 birds and their eggs, together with fruits and vegetables]. They inhabit the warm parts of America, 

 and subsist on nearly the same food as our Martens. 



The Red Coatimondi (Viverra nasua, Lin. ; N. rufa, Desm.)— Rufo-fulvous, the muzzle and caudal annulations 

 brown. And the Brown Coatimondi {V. narica, Lin. ; N.fusca, Desm.)^Brown, with white spots over the eye 

 and snout. [These animals employ their claws to divide flesh, which they thus tear and separate before devour- 

 ing it.] 



The Kinkajou {Cercoleptes, Illiger) — 



Can scarcely be introduced elsewhere than in this place [which is unquestionably its true position]. 



To the plantigrade gait, it joins a veiy long tail, prehensile, as in the Sapajous*, a short muzzle, slender 



and extensile tongue, with two pointed grinders before, and three tuberculous ones backward, [the 



first of which latter represents the carnivorous tooth]. 



But one species is known (Viverra candivolviila, Gm.), from the warm parts of America and some of the Great 

 Antilles, where it is named Pottof : size of a Fitchet, [and larger] ; the fur woolly, and of a yellowish [or golden] 

 brown : nocturnal, and of a mild and gentle disposition ; subsisting on fruits, honey, milk, blood, &c. [It is emi- 

 nently an arboreal quadniped, which moves with a cautious gait, recalling to mind some of the Quadrumana. 



There is a Mexican animal to which Lichtenstein has assigned the generic name Bassaris, and which 

 BlainviUe and others have associated with the Viverrine genera, but which I greatly suspect must 

 rather be placed near the Kinkajou, though I have not at present the means of ascertaining its cha- 

 racters. In form it is not unlike a Musang (Paradoanirus.) X 



The remaining genera are only semi-plantigrade (that is, tliey do not bring the heel quite 

 to the ground), and possess but one tuberculous grinder, which varies greatly in extent of 

 surface : none of them become torpid in winter ; and they all emit, when alarmed, a defensive 

 odour, which in many is horribly fetid.] 



The Badgers {Meles, Storr), § — 



Which LinnsEus placed, together with the Raccoons, in his genus of Bears, have one very small tooth 

 behind the canine, then two pointed molars, followed in the upper jaw by one which we begin to 

 recognize as carnivorous, from the trace of a cutting character which it exliibits on its outer side ; 

 behind this is a square tuberculous tooth, the largest of the series ; and, on the lower jaw, the last but 

 one likewise commences to bear some resemblance to the inferior carnivorous tooth ; but as there 

 are two tubercles on its inward border as elevated as its cutting point, it performs the office of a 

 tuberculous one ; the last below is very small. [The Badger, in fact, has precisely the same den- 

 tition as the Weasels and Otters, presenting a modification of that tj-pe for less carnivorous regimen.] 

 These animals have the tardy gait and nocturnal habit of all the preceding ; their tail is short, [and 



* One which I had an opportunity of studyin^r, as it ran about loose 

 in a room, possessed the prehensile power of the tail in an extremely 

 moderate de^ee, merely resting slightly on this organ, which it 

 stiffened throughout its length, aud never coiled in the manner of the 

 Sapajous. — Ed. 



t Thi* term, applied by the negroes in Africa to a I.ennirine animal 

 (Perodicticun), hut oeen introduced by them, and misapplied in other 

 countries — Ed. 



t Strong presumptive evidence that the Basset {Bassoris) does pot 

 appertain to the Viverrine group, is afforded by the restriction of the 

 geographic range of the latter to the eastern hemisphere, ii* every 

 other instance. The presence or absence of a coecum would decide 

 the question. 



^ T'tj-us of some systcmatists : but this name is employed in Botany 

 for the Yew genus. — Kd. 



