CIVETS AND MUNGOOSES 
but the form is slender with high haunches, the color is uniform 
pale brown, and the whole animal more resembles a large eyra. 
Barring this remarkable beast, the family Viverride falls into 
two divisions: (1) the true civets (viverrines); (2) the mungooses 
(herpestines). Both divisions are now limited to Africa and 
southwestern Asia, but in Tertiary times they occupied Europe; 
none now belong to either America. All are small animals, 
none much larger than a house cat, with flattened bodies, long, 
THE FoussA OF MADAGASCAR. 
pointed heads, the jaws having normally forty teeth, of which 
the rear ones are doglike; short limbs, with the claws retractile 
in some, in others not so; long tails and thick coats of fur, 
usually handsomely marked. All are nocturnal, solitary, 
predatory, and fierce. The species number about forty-five. 
The civets proper (viverrines) have elongated bodies, terrier- 
like heads, small, round five-toed feet with hairy soles and 
sheathed claws, long and often bushy tails, coats 
of rough hair sometimes rising into a crest along the 
spine, and marked on a dark gray ground with black stripes 
151 
Civets. 
