M A M M A L I A — C I V E T. 



155 



heard that he had any voice. During the day he was inclined to sleep, 

 but became restless and exceedingly unquiet as night caiP.e on. 



Bruce describes his fennec as about ten inches long, and of a dirty white 

 color; the hair on the belly being softer, whiter, and longer than on the rest 

 of the body. 



There has been great diversity of opinion among naturalists concerning 

 this animal. Cuvier treats Bruce's account as scarcely worthy of credit ; 

 but Denham and Clapperton, on their return from Central Africa, brought a 

 skin of the animal, and thus placed its existence beyond doubt. 



THE CI VE Tl 



^-v^ 



Is from two to three feet in length, stands from ten to twelve inches high, 

 and has a tail half the length of its body. The hair is long, and the ground 

 color of it is a brownish gray, interspersed with numerous transverse, inter- 

 rupted bands or irregular spots of black. Along the centre of the back, 

 from between the shoulders to the end of the tail, is a kind of mane, which 

 can be erected or depressed as the animal pleases, and which is formed 

 of black hairs, longer than those of the body. The sides of the neck and 

 the upper lip are nearly white. The legs, and the greater part of the tail, 



' Viverra dvctta, Lin. The genus Viverra has six upper and six lower incisors ; two 

 upper and two lower canines ; twelve upper and twelve lower molars. Three false 

 molars in the tipper jaw, conical and compressed, a larc;e carnivorous bicuspid tooth, and 

 two tuberculous ones ; in the lower, four false molars, one bicuspid and one tuberculous ; 

 head long ; muzzle pointed ; feet peatadactyle ; claws semjretractile ; anal pouch more 

 or less deep. 



