i'80 mSTOUY OF 



is now disused /or the less powerful vegetable kinds of fragrance, 

 spirit of lavender or ottar of roses. 



As to tbe rest, the civet is said to be a wild fierce animal ; 

 itid although sonietimes tamed, is never tlioroughly familiar. 

 Its teeth are strong and cutting, although its claws be feeble and 

 flexible. It is light and active, and lives by prey, as the rest of 

 Its kind, pursuing birds, and other small animals that it is able 

 to overcome. They are sometimes seen stealing into the yards 

 and outhouses, to seize upon the poultry ; their eyes shine in 

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

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

 subsist upon roots and fruits, and very seldom drink ; for which 

 reason they are never found near great waters. They breed very 

 fast in their native climates, where the heat seems to conduce 

 to their propagation ; but in our temperate latitudes, although 

 they furnish their perfume in great quantities, yet they are not 

 found to multiply. A proof that their perfume has no analogy 

 with their appetite for generation. 



THE GLUTTON.' 



I WILL add but one animal more to this numerous class of 

 the weasel kind ; namely, the glutton ; which, for several rea- 

 sons, seems to belong to this tribe, and this only. We have 

 hitherto had no precise description of this quadruped ; some re- 

 sembling it to a badger, some to a fox, and some to a hyaena. 

 Linnifius places it among the weasels, from the similitude of its 

 teeth ; it should seem to me to resemble this animal still more, 

 from the great length of its body, and the shortness of its legs, 

 from the softness of its fur, its disagreeable scent, and its insa- 

 tiable appetite for animal food. Mr Klein, who saw one of 

 them, which was brought alive from Siberia, assures us, that it 

 was about three feet long," and about a foot and a half high. 



1 This animal is now ascertained to be a species of bear. It is about three 

 feet long, besides tlie tail, which is a foot in length. Its size is equal to that 

 of the common fox, though, like others of its tribe, it is of a more clumsy 

 make, and its back is more convex. Its general colour is a lilackish brown, 

 with the sides paler. The variety called the Wolverene is distinguished by 

 its superior size, in the colour of its body, which is dull ferruginous, with 

 the front, throat, and longitudinal stripe on the body, whitish. 



2 He says, it was an ell and eight inches long : I have, therefore, given itii 

 length, as sui;posing it to be a Flemish ell, which is 27 inches. 



