CATALOGUE. 55 



HAB. Bengal, Nepal, the Malayan Peninsula, and Southern 

 China. 



A. Presented by the Asiatic Society of Bengal. 



B. Presented by John McClelland, Esq., B.M.S. 



This animal, as well as several other species of this and of the fol- 

 lowing sub-genus (Viverricula), produces the well-known odoriferous 

 perfume or drug called Civet by Europeans, Zabat by the continental 

 Indians (Shakespear), and Jebat and Dedes by the Malays (Marsderi). 

 It is a secretion formed in a large double glandular receptacle situated 

 beneath the root of the tail. In many countries of the east, the Civet- 

 cat is kept in cages for the supply of this drug, which is collected 

 periodically at short intervals. Its habits in a wild state are predatory, 

 sanguinary and ferocious in the highest degree, and they are but little 

 changed in a state of confinement. 



A detailed account of the Civet-cat, or Kuttauss as it is termed in 

 Bengal, is given by Williamson in the " Wild Sports of the East," from 

 which the following is an extract. " This animal is, perhaps, the most 

 obnoxious of all the wild tribes known in India. It is seldom, if ever, 

 seen on a plain, except at night, when it leaves its haunts in quest of 

 prey. The kuttauss is remarkably bold, sparing nothing which it can 

 overcome, and frequently killing, as it were, merely for sport. Its 

 principal devastations are among sheep and swine, from which it pur- 

 loins the young, and commits dreadful havoc among poultry. To the 

 rapacity of the wolf, it joins the agility of the cat and the cunning of 

 the fox. Its figure is a strange compound of the fox and polecat, its 

 head being long and sharp with pricked ears, its body low and long, 

 and its tail rather long but not very bushy. Its claws are concealed at 

 pleasure. The colour of its body is a dirty ash-colour, somewhat striped 

 with a darker shade, and its tail has many rather indistinct circles of 

 the same tint. 



" This obnoxious animal is generally found in short underwood 

 covers, mixed more or less with long grass, and especially wliere Pal- 

 myra or Cocoa trees are to be seen. Although it is sometimes met 

 with in various detached jungles, yet, for the most part, its residence 

 is confined to such as border old tanks or jeels. These banks being 

 formed by the excavation, are often very high and broad ; with time, 

 they settle and become natter, and are generally overrun with very 

 strong brambles, through which even an elephant could not make his 

 way without extreme difficulty. Of such covers the kuttauss is a 

 regular inhabitant, seldom stirring in the day, during which time he 



