

CARNIVORA. 169 



take this species to be the Kuttauss of India, well 

 known to sportsmen ; a fierce and vigorous animal, 

 equal in size with the former, hut differing from 

 it chiefly hy the tail heing longer, and the hlack 

 streaks running obliquely from the shoulders to the 

 haunches, at first in four lines on each side, and 

 from the hips in round spots continued to the edge 

 of the buttocks ; the tail is black, with ten whitish 

 oval spots, the tenth forming the tip, which, there- 

 fore, is white ; on the neck and shoulder there are 

 four vertical black stripes on each side, and there 

 are several round spots on the cheek and temple ; 

 the abdomen is white. 



The Kuttauss does not bear an agreeable musky 

 smell, but one rancid, and so strong, that dogs, in 

 full chase after other game, lose the scent if they 

 rouse one of these animals, and are immediately 

 impelled to worry it to death, remaining unfit to 

 use the nose for the rest of the day. It is a night 

 prowler, dexterous, noiseless, and ferocious, killing 

 for the love of blood, young sheep and pigs, and 

 making great havock in poultry yards ; retreating 

 from its depredations to the reedy, brambled, and 

 jungle borders of jeels and water tanks, as near a 

 Mahommedan village as possible, because the people 

 of that creed in India rear poultry, which the Hin- 

 doos, reckoning fowls unclean, do not. It is diffi- 

 cult to get at them with dogs, because they escape 

 into trees, or, if they are overtaken, defend them- 

 selves by biting, so sharply, as often to break the 

 limb, and refusing to relax the gripe though worried 



