VIVERRA RASSE. 



The entire length of our animal, from the end of the muzzle to the root of the 

 tail, is one foot and eleven inches : the head measures five inches and one-fourth, and 

 the tail twelve inches ; the distance between the ears, at the base, is ten lines. A 

 very perfect specimen of the yiverra Zibetha, the Tanggalung of the Malays, 

 forwarded from Sumatra by Sir Stamford Raffles, affords the means of shewing more 

 distinctly the peculiarities of the Rasse, by a careful comparison. The Tanggalung 

 is two feet six inches long ; the head measures six inches and three-fourths, and the 

 tail eleven inches. The space between the ears is two inches. The proportions of 

 the parts of the body of the two species are very different. The Viverra Zibetha is 

 comparatively a stout animal ; the neck is short and thick, and the breast full and 

 distended. The head, which in the Rasse is regularly attenuated, in form of a wedge, 

 in the Tanggalung is swelled, rounded and bulging before the ears, and then very 

 abruptly contracted to a short muzzle. The ears are ten lines distant in the Rasse, 

 and two inches in the Zibetha ; this character gives a very different physiognomy to 

 the two animals. The tail is nearly cylindrical in the Tanggalung ; in the Rasse it 

 is regularly and uniformly attenuated to a point. In the hairy covering, or fiu', 

 these two animals are essentially different; while it is rigid, coarse, and rather scantily 

 disposed in the Rasse, it is close, soft to the touch, and provided with much down 

 at the base in the Tanggalung, and its thickness affords a peculiarity to the tail of 

 the latter. 



I shall now concisely enumerate the distinctions afforded by the external marks. 

 The Viverra Zibetha has a single black line, of considerable breadth, in the highest 

 part of the back, bounded on each side by a white line ; exterior to this is an inter- 

 rupted line of a dark colour, while the rest of the back and sides is covered with 

 smaller spots, disposed in such a manner as to give the appearance to these parts of 

 being transversely undulated. In the Rasse eight regular parallel lines are clearly 

 distinguishable. The upper parts of the head and neck present no difference in these 

 two animals ; but the marks on the lateral and anterior parts of the neck are very dark 

 in the Zibetha, while they are faint and indistinct in the Rasse. The rings are strongly 

 marked, and pass uniformly around the tail in the Rasse; in the Viverra Zibetha 

 they are irregularly defined, and scarcely perceptible on the under side of the tail. 



The name Rasse, Uke many other Javanese names, is derived from the Sanskrit 

 langviage ; and it is therefore entitled to be employed as a specific name, with the 

 same propriety as Civetta and Zibetha, which are derived from the Arabic. Rasse, 

 as employed by the Javanese, is a modification of Rasa, and is applied to our animal as 

 producing an odoriferous svibstance. In the original, Rasa has various significations, of 

 which flavour or taste appears to be the primary meaning; the others also relate chiefly 



