VIVERRIDE 527 
elongated so as to form a sort of crest or mane; neck with a black 
gorget. Pupil circular when contracted. Perineal glands greatly 
developed. These characters apply especially to VY. cwetta, the 
African Civet, or “Civet-Cat” as it is commonly called, an animal 
rather larger than a common Fox, and an inhabitant of intra- 
tropical Africa. V. zibetha, the Indian Civet, of about equal size, 
inhabits Bengal, China, the Malay Peninsula, and adjoining islands. 
V. tangalunga, from Java, Sumatra, Borneo, and the Philippines, 
ee ee 
Fic. 232.—The left upper dentition of the Indian Civet (Viverra zibetha). From the 
Pulwontologia Indica. 
and V7. megaspila, from Burma, are smaller but nearly allied 
animals; the latter being more distinctly spotted than either of the 
others. From these species and the next-the civet of commerce, 
once so much admired as a perfume in England, and still largely 
used in the East, is obtained. The animals are kept in cages, and 
the odoriferous secretion collected from the interior of the perineal 
follicles with a spoon or spatula. 
The Rasse or Lesser Indian Civet (V. malaccensis) may be re- 
garded as the representative of a distinct group of Viwerra, although 
often referred to a separate genus (Viverricula). The size of this 
animal is smaller than in the typical group, the build is slighter, the 
muzzle finer, the claws sharper and more curved, and there is no 
erectile mane along the back. Generally there is an alisphenoid 
canal in the skull ; and the anterior chamber of the auditory bulla is 
much more inflated than the hinder one, so that the apparent length 
of the whole bulla is increased. This species is found over the 
greater part of India, and extends to the Malay Peninsula and 
Southern China. 
Large species of Viverra occur in the Pleistocene and Pliocene of 
India, and also in the Pliocene of France, which approximate in 
some characters of the dentition to the extinct genus Jctitherium, 
mentioned at the end of the family. Species of this genus have 
also been described from the Miocene and Upper Eocene of Europe. 
The Lower Miocene /”. antigua has an alisphenoid canal, and all the 
other cranial characters of the typical forms. 
Fossa..—The Fossa of Madagascar comes so close to the Rasse 
1 Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1864, p. 518. 
