458 



CARNIVORES. 



The typical palm-civets, constituting the genus Paradoxurus, are exclusively 

 Asiatic, ranging from India and Burma through the Malayan region to the south 

 of China, and also occurring in the Philippines, Celebes, and Formosa. They may 

 be either uniformly-coloured or striped, and, with one exception, have no rings on 

 the tail, which is very long, but not prehensile. In size most of them may be 

 compared to a large cat with relatively short legs. Their ears are small and 

 rounded, the pupil of the eye is vertical, and the claws are completely retractile. 

 The most distinctive external feature is to be found, however, in the soles of the 

 feet, which, in both the fore and hind-limbs are almost completely naked ; the bald 



THE COMMON PALM-CIVET (} liat. size). 



area being continued backwards from the foot-pads without the intervention of any 

 hairy space. 



The palm-civets are purely nocturnal and thoroughly arboreal in their habits ; 

 their food, in accordance with the structure of their teeth, consisting in part of 

 animal and in part of vegetable substances. The name Paradoxurus often 

 anglicised into Paradoxure was given to these animals on account of a caged 

 specimen in Paris having its tail coiled up in a peculiar manner. It was believed 

 that this was the normal condition, and that the tail could be used as a prehensile 

 organ. It appears, however, that although the palm-civets have naturally some 

 power of coiling and uncoiling their tails, yet that the permanently coiled condition, 

 as shown in the Paris and some other caged specimens, is a kind of disease due to 

 the effects of captivity. Altogether there appear to be upwards of eleven well- 



