THE HEM IG ALE. 



197 



The Musang of Java is, although a destroyer of rats and mice, rather a pest to the coffee- 

 plantations, which it ravages in such a manner as to have earned the title of the Coffee Rat. It 

 feeds largely upon the berries of the coffee shrub, choosing only the ripest fruit, stripping 

 them of their membranous covering, and so eating them. It is a remarkable fact that the 

 berries thus eaten appear to undergo no change by the process of digestion, so that the natives, 

 who are free from over-scrupulous prejudices, collect the rejected berries, and are thus saved 

 the trouble of picking and clearing them from the husk. 



However, the injury which this creature does to the coffee-berries is more than compensated 

 by its very great usefulness as a coffee planter. For, as these berries are uninjured in their 

 passage through the body of the animal, and are in their ripest state, they take root where 

 they lie, and in due course of time spring up and form new coffee plantations, sometimes in 

 localities where they are not expected. It may be that, although the coffee seeds undergo no 

 visible change in the interior of the Musang, they imbibe the animal principle, and thus 



MUSANG. — Paradoxurus fasciatus. 



become more fitted for the soil than if they had been planted without the intermediate agency 

 of the creature. 



The Musang is not content with coffee-berries and other vegetable food, although it seems 

 to prefer a vegetable to an animal diet. When pressed by hunger, it seeks eagerly after 

 various small quadrupeds and birds, and is often a pertinacious robber of the hen-roosts. 



The animal which is known as the Hemigale, is remarkable for the singularity of its 

 coloring, and the mode in which the fur is diversified with lighter and darker tints. 



The color of this animal's fur is a grayish -brown, on which are placed six or seven large 

 and bold stripes, arranged saddle-wise upon the back, being very broad above, and narrowing 

 to a point towards the ribs. These bands are unconnected with each other. On the top of the 

 head there is a narrow black line, and on each side of the face, a black line runs from the ear 

 to the nose, surrounding the eye in its progress. The nose itself is black. Down the sides of 

 the neck there are some obscure streaks, which are more conspicuous in a side light. The tail 

 is marked with dark patches upon its upper surface, and latter half is black. 



The name Hemigale is Greek, and signifies, " Semi-weasel" — and the specific title is given 

 in honor of General Hardwick, who has done such good service to zoology. 



The last of the great Viverrine group of animals is the Cryptopkocta, a creature whose 

 rabbit-like mildness of aspect entirely belies its nature. 



It is a native of Madagascar, and has been brought from the southern portions of that 

 wonderful island. It is much to be wished that the zoology of so prolific a country should be 



