94 NATURAL HISTORY. 



" This Tree Cat is a common and abundant animal throughout the greater part of India and Ceylon, 

 extending through Burmah and the Malayan Peninsula to the island. It is most abundant in the latter 

 wooded region, and is rarely met with in the low portions of the Deccan, Central India, and the 

 North- West Provinces. It is very abundant on the Carnatic and Malabar coast, where it is popularly 

 called the Toddy Cat, in consequence of its supposed preference for the juice of the palm, a fact which 

 appears of general acceptation both in India and Ceylon (where it is called the Palm Cat), and which 

 appears to have some foundation. Kelaart says : ' It is a well-established fact that it is a consumer of 

 palm toddy.' It lives much in trees, especially in the palmyra and cocoa-nut palms, and is often found 

 to have taken up its residence in the thick thatched roofs of native houses. I found a large colony of 

 them established among the rafters of my own house at Tillichery. It is occasionally found in dry 



COMMON PAUADOXU11E. 



drains, outhouses, and other places of shelter. It is quite nocturnal, issuing forth at dark, and living 

 by preference on animal food, rats, lizards, small birds, poultry, and eggs ; but it also freely partakes 

 of vegetable food, fruit, and insects. In confinement it will eat plantain, boiled rice, bread and milk, 

 <fec. Colonel Sykes mentions that it is very fond of Cockroaches. Now and then it will commit 

 depredations in some poultry-yard ; and I have often known them taken in traps baited with a Pigeon 

 or a Chicken. In the south of India it is very often tamed, and becomes quite domestic, and even 

 affectionate in its manners. One I saw, many years ago, at Trichinopoly, went about quite at large, 

 and late every night used to work itself under the pillow of its owner, roll itself up into a ball, with 

 its tail curled round its body, and sleep till a late hour of the day. It Imnted for Rats, Shrews, and 

 House Lizards. Their activity in climbing is very great ; and they used to ascend and descend my 

 house, at one of the corners of the building, in a most surprising manner." Sir Emerson Tennent 

 states that in Ceylon the Palm Cat makes fearful havoc with the fowls of the villagers, "and, in order 

 to suck the blood of its victims, inflicts a wound so small as to be almost imperceptible." 



THE BINT HUONG.* 



This is a curious little animal, of a black colour, with a white border to its ears, a large head and 

 turned-up nose, and a long, immensely thick, tapering tail, which, remarkably enough, is prehensile, 



* Arctictis bintvrovg. 



