ANIMALS. 283 



quires a warm climate to subsist asid multiply iu ; and yet it is 

 not to be found in the warmer regions either of India, or Africa. 

 From such as have seen its uses at Constantinople, I learn that it 

 is one of the most beautiful, cleanly, and industrious animals in the 

 world ; that it keeps whatever house it is in perfectly free from 

 mice and rats, which cannot endure its smell. Add to tliis, its na- 

 ture is mild and gentle, its colours various and glossy, its fur va- 

 luable ; and, upon the whole, it seems to be one of those 

 animals that with proper care might be propagated amongst us, 

 and might become one of the most serviceable of our domestics- 



THE CIVET. 



Proceeding from the smaller to the greater of this kind, we 

 come in the last place to the civet, which is much larger than 

 any of the former ; for as the martin is not above sixteen inches 

 long, the civet is found to be above thirty. Mr Euffon dis- 

 tinguishes this species into two kinds, one of which he calls the 

 civet, and the other the zibet. The latter principally differs from 

 the former in having the body longer and more slender, the nose 

 smaller, the ears longer and broader ; no mane or long hair run- 

 ning down the back in the latter •, and the tail longer, and bet- 

 ter marked with rings of different colours, from one end to the 

 other. These are the differences which have induced this great 

 naturalist to suppose them animals of distinct species ; and to 

 allot each a separate description. How far future experience 

 may confirm this conjecture, time must discover ; but certain 

 it is, that if such small varieties make a separate species, there 

 may be many other animals equally entitled to peculiar distinc- 

 tion that are now classed together. We shall, therefore, con- 

 tent ourselves, at present, with considering, as former naturalists 

 have done, these two merely as varieties of the same animal, 

 and oidy altered in figure by climate, food, or education. 



The civet resembles animals of the weasel kind in the longslen- 

 derness of its body, the shortness of its legs, the odorous matter 

 that exudes from the glands behind, the softness of its fur, the 

 luimber of its claws, and their incapacity of being sheathed. It 

 differs from them in being much larger than any hitherto de- 

 scribed ; in having the nose lengthened, so as to resemble that of 

 the lux ; the tail long and taperitig to a point ; and its eara 



