454 CARNIVORES. 
home of the group. This is confirmed by what we know of their past history, for 
the remains of an extinct species have been found in a cavern in Madras, and 
those of two others in the Pliocene rocks of the Siwalik Hills in the north of India; 
one of the species from the latter district being far larger than any existing civet. 
At a still earlier period—in the Lower Miocene and Upper Eocene—civets were, 
inhabitants of Western Europe, their remains having been discovered both in 
England and on the Continent. We have thus another instance of the deriva- 
tion of the modern mammalian fauna of the East from the old European fauna, 
to which we have already had occasion to allude. The old civets of Europe differ 
somewhat in the characters of their teeth from the living species, but appear in 
THE RASSE (} nat, size), 
other respects to have been nearly allied. Very few of the existing genera of 
mammals date so far back as the upper portion of the Eocene period, and civets 
may be regarded as one of the oldest groups in the class. 
Omitting mention of an animal from Madagasear closely allied to the rasse, 
and known scientifically as the Fossa—which must not be confounded with the 
fossa mentioned above—our next representatives of the family are 
THE GENETS. 
Genus Genetta. 
Among the little animals known as genets is one of the two members 
of the civet family found in Europe. Although nearly related to the true 
