2»;o 



VERTEBRATA. 



THE RIMAN-DIHAN. 



'loir, who used to play round the cage and -with the animal, and it was amusing to observe the 

 playfulness and tenderness with which the latter came in contact with his inferior-sized com- 

 panion. When fed with a fowl that died, he seized the prey, and after sucking the blood and 

 tearing it a little, he amused himself for hours in throwing it about and jumping after it in the 

 manner that a cat plays with a mouse before it is quite dead, lie never seemed to look on man 

 or children as prey, but as companions: the natives assert that when wild, these creatures live 

 principally on poultry, birds, and the smaller kinds of deer. They are not numerous, and may 

 be considered rather ran' animals, even in the southern part of Sumatra. Both specimens were 

 procured from the interior of Bencoolen, on the banks of the Bencoolen River. They are gener- 

 ally found in the vicinity of villages, and are not dreaded by the natives, except as far as they 

 may destroy the poultry. The natives assert that they sleep and often lie in wait for their prey on 

 trees : and from this circumstance they derive the name of Dihan, which signifies the fork formed 

 by the branch of a tnc, across which they are said to rest and occasionally to stretch themselves. 

 Both specimens constantly amused themselves in frequently jumping and clinging to the top of 

 their cage, and throwing a somerset, or twisting themselves round in the manner of a squirrel 

 when confined, the tail being extended, and showing to great advantage when so expanded." 



Leaving for the present the American Jaguar and Puma which rank with the leopard and 

 panther in size, and would naturally come in here, we must now notice various foreign species of 

 the cat family, which are intermediate between these powerful brutes and the smaller kinds. 

 The Servax, F. serval, of Africa, has a skin of a yellowish color, marked with black spots; the 

 tail has eight black rings; length of the body two feet, height one foot. A young one in the 

 Zoological Gardens was mild, gentle, and exceedingly sportive, playing with its tail and rolling 

 small objects about on the floor like a kitten. It is a native of Southern Africa. 



The Caffke Cat,/ 7 . Caffra, is about two feel long; it- tail is long and bushy; its ground-color 

 of a grayish brown zebraed with black. It i- extremely elegant in its form and its mark; 

 It i- found in Caffraria and parts of Southern Africa, living in the flats covered with long g 

 and low underwood, and feeding upon small quadrupeds and bird-. 



Tin- Nepaul Tiger-Cat, F. N~epalensi8,h.aa a ground-color of grayish brown, with longitudinal 

 band- and spots of deep black. It i- of the size of the preceding, but more slender of form, ami 

 with the tail longer. It appeal- to be of a wild and savage nature. 



Tie- I\i bouk, F. Javanensis, found in Java; the Marbled Cat, F. marmorata, of Malacca ; the 

 MiuviM, /•'. Sfoormensis, from tin Moormi Hills of Nepaul; the Wagati Cat, F. viverrina, of 

 India; the Baltx, F. Su?natratw, of Sumatra; the Maou, F. Chhiensis, of China; Warwick's 



