FELIS JUBATA. 



117 



cheeta after felling the antelope, seizes it by the throat, and when the 

 keeper comes up, he cuts its throat and collects some of the blood in the 

 wooden ladle from which it is always fed : this is offered to the cheeta, who 

 drops his hold, and laps it up eagerly, during which the hood is cleverly 

 slipped on again. My tame cheeta when hungry or left alone (for it 

 appeared unhappy when away from the dogs and with no one near it) had 

 a plaintive cry, which Blyth appropriately calls a " bleat-hke mew." Shi- 

 karees always assert that if taken as cubs they are useless for traioing, till 

 they have been taught by their parents how to pull down their prey. This 

 opinion is corroborated, in part at least, by my experiences with the tame 

 one mentioned above. 



Out of the fifteen species of Mlince included here, five are common to 

 India and Africa, viz., the Lion, the Pard, the Cheeta, the Chaus, Wild Cat, 

 and the Caracal or Lynx. Seven are common to India and Malayana, 

 iacludiug Burmah, Assam, &c., viz., the Tiger, the Pard, the Clouded 

 Leopard, the Marbled Tiger-cat, the Large Tiger-cat, the Leopard Cat, and 

 the Bay Cat, of which three only occur (in our province) in the south-east 

 Himalayas, viz., the Clouded, the Marbled Cat, and the Bay Cat; one, 

 the Ounce, is an outlier of Central Asia ; and only three appear peculiar 

 to the peninsula of India, viz., the small Tiger Cat (Jerdoni), the Eusty- 

 Spotted Cat and the Spotted wild cat. 



Fam. VivEEEiD^. 



5—5 ^ 6—6 

 4=4*° 6-^:6' 



Molars vary in number from - — ;;■ to ^ — - ; feet tetradactylous or pen- 



tadactyloua. 



Hie civets, as usually recognised, comprise a varied assemblage of 

 animals exclusively confined to the eastern continent, and chiefly to the 

 warmer regions thereof. They most of them possess a pouch under the 

 anus. They are divided into the hysenas and the true civets. 



Sub. fam. 'S.^xsms. 



5 5 5 5 



Molar teeth -j^;^ or -^ — ^ ; feet tetradactylous ; trunk declining back- 

 wards from the shoulders ; taU short. 



In general form hytenas resemble dogs more than cats, and Linnseus 

 classed them with the former, to which they appear united by the Lycaon 

 pictus of South Africa. In their dentition they more resemble Mlidce. 

 They have three false molars above and four below, all conical, blunt and 



