CATALOGUE. 53 



present, though wanting in Felis. These are the essential marks of 

 the genus Prionodon, and are found in our animal, as in the generic 

 type, united with a vermiform structure and inferior size, such as are 

 seen in the lesser civet cats of India, or that form, between which and 

 the true cats, the Prionodons take their place. 



" Our little animal further approaches the cats and the type of Prio- 

 nodon by its soft glossy fur, which is closer and finer than in any species 

 of civet. Head, elongate-conic, compressed, viverrine, with the eyes 

 placed at equal distance between the nose and the anteal base of the 

 ear ; muzzle, or nude extremity of the nose, small, rounded, distinct, 

 slightly grooved above and in front, and having the nares opened anteally 

 and laterally ; lips, adpressed, and furnished with very long but rather 

 soft mustachios ; smaller tufts above the eye and on the cheek, none on 

 the chin ; ears, fully developed, placed high up, ovoid, rounded at the 

 tips ; the helix considerably attached to the scull anteriorly, and fur- 

 nished posteriorly with a simple fissure ; softly furred behind and on 

 the margin interiorly ; the rest of the interior nude, and hid by 

 the longer hair springing from the fore part of the helix ; head and 

 body, both considerably elongated and slender ; limbs, short, fine, 

 feline, but the thumbs rather nearer to the other digits than in 

 Felis, and a corresponding digit to the hinder extremities ; talons, 

 very acute, and entirely sheathed and concealed; tail, equal to the 

 body and neck, perfectly cylindric, and furred like the rest of the 

 animal's skin. 



" ' Anal pouch/ very apparently present, but the exact character of 

 it not determinable ; tongue, aculeated backwards. The colours of the 

 animal are very rich and beautiful, resembling closely, and no way 

 yielding in beauty to those of the leopard, the ground being an uniform 

 rich pardine fulvous, and the marks jet black. The marks too are 

 almost wholly rounded as in the leopard ; but they are full or entire, 

 that is, have not open centres ; and upon the neck (superior) they take 

 that linear character which is nowhere seen in the leopard. Lips, chin, 

 inferior surface of head, neck, and body, together with the toes, imma- 

 culate ; bridge of nose and superior surface of head, mixed with dusky 

 but no distinct marks ; a vague spot or two on the cheeks ; ears, out- 

 side black, inside pale ; immediately behind them arise two unbroken 

 lines proceeding to a little beyond the shoulders, and two more below 

 these, proceeding brokenly to them only ; rest of the upper and lateral 

 surfaces of the body covered with large round entire black marks, of 

 which six or seven may be counted longitudinally from the shoulders 

 to the base of the tail, and eight transversely, those nearest the dorsal 



