JAVANESE GENETT. 93 



annually in the fur countries. Its colour is a dull, pale^ 

 greyish brown^ or hair-brown_, from the roots upwards ; 

 dull yellowish brown near the summit^ and tipped with 

 dark brown or black ; the surface having a considerable 

 lustre : the hair of the tail is longer, coarser, and 

 darker. The yellowish white markings of the throat 

 vary in different individuals. Length of the head and 

 body from eighteen to twenty inches. 



The Javanese Genett. 



Viverra Musanga, Raffles, Horsfield. Musang-bulein, Malays. 

 Luwak, Javanese. 



There are circumstances connected with the economy 

 0^ this animal, which are peculiarly calculated to awaken 

 our attention, and to excite our admiration of those 

 means by which an Almighty Providence distributes the 

 productions of the earth for the benefit of man. We 

 know not, indeed, whether the living animal has been 

 brought to Europe ; but, as it is of a race capable of 

 living in confinement, it might easily be introduced into 

 our menageries. 



The native manners of the Javanese genett are very 

 similar to those of the common species. It is most 

 abundant near the villages adjoining large forests, where 

 it constructs a simple nest, like the squirrel, of dry leaves, 

 grass, or small twigs, on the fork of a branch, or in a 

 hollow trunk ; hence it sallies forth at night to visit 

 the sheds and hen-roosts of the natives, which it 

 plunders of fowls and eggs. Its depredations are also 

 extended to the gardens and plantations, which it pil- 

 lages of nearly all kinds of fruit, particularly pine- 

 apples. 



"The coffee plantations of Java," observes Dr. Hors- 

 field, " are so greatly infected by this animal, that it 

 has, on this account, obtained the name of the Coffee 

 Rat. It devours the berries in large quantities ; and its 

 visits are soon discovered by parcels of seeds which it 

 discharges unchanged. It selects only the ripest and 



