214 THE SERVAL— THE CIVET 



secured — was fully 4 feet in length, and had a 

 shoulder height of quite 3 feet. 



Servals are very untractable animals. While 

 young they are pretty and interesting, and like 

 most wild creatures display no little appreciation 

 of care and kind treatment ; but as they reach 

 maturity, the inborn savageness oi their dis- 

 position would appear to remove all grateful 

 recollections, and nothing whatsoever can now be 

 done except to place them under permanent 

 restraint. 



Civets are also numerous. In colour of a 

 rather dull, tawny grey, sprinkled over with simple 

 spots, they are handsome little animals, and 

 when the mane of long black hairs which runs 

 down the dorsal line is erected in anger they 

 present quite a formidable appearance. Natives 

 prize their skins for purposes of an ornamental 

 character, but would seem, so far as I am aware, 

 to place no value at all upon the scent glands 

 found at the base of the tail. 



The habits of civets are strikingly similar to 

 those of the servals, except that I fancy they are 

 powerless to climb trees. At all events I have 

 never seen one in the branches, and doubt very 

 much if the character of their claws would enable 

 them to reach that elevation. The civet follows 

 the singular practice of resorting to the same 

 place day after day for the purpose of depositing 

 its dung, which may at times be seen in large piles 

 in the native paths nightly frequented by it in 

 pursuit of rats, mice, and other small animals and 

 insects. 



