it lives and appears in perfect health in them : in its 

 own chmate it is very prohhc. 



It is active and nimble; jumping about like aCat,- 

 and running very swiftly. It feeds on small animals : 

 but particularly on Birds, which it takes by surprize ; 

 and it sometimes commits depredations among 

 poultr}', when it can steal unperceived into a farm- 

 yard. It is very voracious ; and will often roll 

 itself, for a minute or two, on its meat, before eat- 

 ing. One that Barbot had at Guadaloupe was, from 

 the carelessnes of )iis servant, kept without food for 

 a whole day : the animal, on the following morn- 

 ing, gnawed his way through the cage in which he 

 was kept, came into the room where M. Barbot was 

 writing, and, staring about with his sparkling eyes 

 for a few seconds, made a leap of five or six feet at a 

 fine American Parrot, that was perched on a piece 

 of wood put into the wall for the purpose. Before 

 his master could run to the relief of the bird, the 

 Civet had torn off its head, and begun to feast him- 

 self on his prey *. Though the Civet is naturally 

 savage, it is capable of being tamed, and rendered 

 tolerably familiar. Its voice is stronger than that 

 of a Cat, and somewhat resembles the cry of an en- 

 raged Dog. 



This animal is remarkable for the production of 

 the drug called civet, sometimes erroneously con- 

 founded with musk. This substance is a secretion, 

 formed in a large double glandular receptacle situ- 

 ated at some litde distance beneath the tail, and 



* BarWt; V. 114, ;^ 11. 



