THE LIFE OF MAMMALS 
and bars, and with lengthwise lines of squarish blotches very 
distinctive of the tribe. The fur has some value, particularly 
in China. The habits of these animals are much like those of 
foxes, as they are wholly terrestrial, live in holes in the ground, 
and subsist mainly on birds and small mammals, but some also 
like fish, frogs, snakes, crabs, insects, earthworms, eggs, etc., 
and frequently steal poultry. 
The distinctive peculiarity of the true civet cats is the possession of a 
pair of open pouches beneath the root of the tail, in which (in the male) is 
THE AFRICAN PERFUME-YIELDING CIVIL CAT. 
secreted an oily substance having an intense musky odor and known as 
“‘civet.” This is present in the five Oriental species, but is most copious 
in the civet cat of northern Africa. Although overpoweringly disgusting 
to our nostrils in its raw state, it is not so to some barbarians, so that it has 
always been used as a perfume in the East, and in Shakespeare’s time was 
fashionable in Europe. In parts of Egypt, in Abyssinia, and especially in 
Java, one or another species is kept in captivity for the sake of this secre- 
tion, which is scraped from its pouches every few days and sold to per- 
fumers; as its secretion and flow are increased by irritating the animal, it 
is forced into a long, narrow cage, which has the double effect of infuriating 
the subject and making the use of the spoonlike instrument safe. Civet 
finds a steady market, London alone importing some twenty thousand 
ounces annually. One of the most widespread of Oriental species is the 
tasse, which has no dorsal crest and is a good tree climber; it is easily 
tamed, and in China and Formosa is eaten, despite its strong musky taint. 
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