ORDER CARNASSIER. 377 



genus in approaching Hysena, in having but four toes on 

 each foot, and it is said in other essential particulars. — 

 Mos eorum copulandi mos canum non est, u. d. If this 

 be so, the absolute separation of the species seems abso- 

 lutely necessary. 



Mr. Burchel had a living subject in his possession, for 

 thirteen months, chained up in a stable yard. During this 

 time its ferocious nature deterred every body from all at- 

 tempts at taming it ; but it became at length so much 

 softened in manner, as to play with a common dog, also 

 chained up in the yard, without manifesting any desire of 

 hurting its companion, but the man who fed it dared never 

 to venture his hand upon it. 



They hunt in regular packs, whence Mr. Burchel's spe- 

 cific epithet : though in general a nocturnal animal, it fre- 

 quently pursues its prey by day ; and as it is well formed 

 by nature for speed, none but the fleeter animals can escape. 

 Sheep and oxen are therefore more particularly subject to its 

 attack, the first openly, but the latter only by stealth, sur- 

 prising them in their sleep and suddenly biting off their tail, 

 which the large opening and great powers of its jaws 

 enables it to do with ease. The large cattle, it appears, are 

 assaulted by them in no other way, but the loss of their tail 

 is a great inconvenience to cows and oxen, in a country 

 where the warmth of the climate subjects them to great 

 annoyance from flies. 



We now come to that subdivision of the Carnassiers which 

 is called the Viverr^e, whose generic character is detailed 

 by our author, in the text. The first species is the Civet 

 itself. Authors have so imperfectly marked the distinctive 

 characters between this animal and the Zibeth, that Buffon 

 was inclined to suspect that there was no essential differ- 

 ence between them, but that they were at the most mere 

 varieties of the same species : in fact, the figures and de- 



