Remarks on an undescribed species of Civet. 57 



curious also to observe this law of isographism, if we may 

 use such an expression, the more constant in those species 

 whose form and habits approach nearest to each other, and 

 which it would consequently be most difficult to distinguish 

 but for the constancy of some peculiar marks. Until 

 the time of Buffon, the difference between the Civet 

 and the Zibeth was unobserved, both being of nearly the 

 same form and colour, but the number of dark marks on the 

 tail being different in the two, might have earlier led to 

 a comparison of the number and form of the vertebral bones 

 of which the organ is constructed, when a difference we may 

 presume would have been detected that could only be 

 accounted for by the ordinary laws of variation in animals 

 of distinct species. Strange to say, however, that long after 

 the difference between the animals in question had been first 

 suggested, naturalists preferred dealing in opinions to search- 

 ing for facts ; and so slow is the discovery of truth, that it 

 required some thirty years to reconcile naturalists to what 

 they had been unaccustomed to suppose in this instance. 



The Civet ( Viverra civetta) is most abundant in the hottest 

 parts of Africa and in Abyssinia, where the animal is reared 

 and an extensive trade carried on in civet, a peculiar odori- 

 ferous substance like musk, once very fashionable in medi- 

 cine, and also as a perfume. 



The Zibeth ( Viverra zibetta) has been found in the Philip- 

 pine Islands, from whence the animal figured and described 

 by M. F. Cuvier seems to have been brought ; but it is said 

 also to belong to India, but on what authority I have not 

 the means of ascertaining. 



Colonel Sykes found Viverra rasse, Horsf. in the woods of 

 the table lands east of the western ghauts,* and V. indica, a 

 very nearly allied species to the latter, in the forests of the 

 western ghauts. More recently Mr. Hodgson of Nipal men- 

 tions both these species as inhabitants of the Tarai.f The 

 species figured in Hardwicke's Illustrations as Viverra ben- 



* Proc. Zool. Soc. 14th Feb., 1832. f lb. Proc. 26th Aug. 1834. 



I 



