6o MAMMALIA— ORDER IV.—CARNIVORA. 



The last member of the sub-family is the peculiar Bennett's civet (Cyiwgale 

 benneiti) from the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, and Borneo, wliich is a grizzled 

 grey animal, readily distinguished from all the foregoing by the absence of a 

 groove on the nose and upper lip, the short tail, the partially webbed feet, 

 and by tlie under surface of the metatarsus and tarsus being somewhat 

 less naked. In size it may be compared to the larger civets, the length of 

 the head and body being about 32 inches. Its habits are believed to be 

 partially aquatic. 



With the exception of the fossa, which forms a, sub-family by itself, the 

 whole of the foregoing members of the family constitute the sub-family 

 ViverriiuE, characterised by the features noticed above, 

 The Mungoose The mungooses, or ichneumons, are the first representatives 

 Group. of a second sub-family {He.rpestiiuv) presenting the following 



distinctive characters. The auditory bulla of the skull is 

 pear-shaped, and its hinder margin distinctly everted, with the so-called 

 paroccipital process not projecting beyond, but spread over it, and in the 

 adult becoming merged in its hinder surface. The claws are long and non- 

 retractile ; and there are no glands in front of the scrotum. As a genus, the 

 mungooses may be distinguished from their allies by the presence of five 

 toes to each foot, a vertical groove on the nose, and usually four pairs of 

 premolar teeth ; the molars being, as usual, two in each jaw. The muzzle is 

 sharply pointed, the body long and weasel-like, the legs very short, the ears 

 short and rounded ; and the tail generally long and tapering, with loose, 

 elongated hair. The feet are plantigrade ; but there is much variation in 

 the extent of the bare portion of the soles of the hind ones ; in some species 

 this area extending back to the heel, while in others the lower surface of the 

 tarsus is hairy. The coarse and loose fur has a peculiar speckled appearance, 

 owing to tlie 'iresence of dark and light rings on the hairs, and the tail is 

 never ringed. The sharp cusps of the cheek-teeth are in marked contrast to 

 the bluntly-cusped ones of the palm-civets ; and the skull is remarkable for 

 a sharp constriction behind the sockets of the eyes, and likewise for the cir- 

 cumstance that the latter generally have a complete bony ring. Mungooses 

 range over Africa and the Oriental countries as far as the Philippines, the 

 Egyptian species {H. ichneumon) entering Southern Europe. All these 

 animals are terrestrial, and very active in their habits, generally livipo- in 

 holes. They are deadly enemies to rats and other Rodents, as they are t.i 

 snakes.^ The most venomous serpents are attacked without hesitation, the 

 immunity of the mungoose from harm in such encounters being apparentlv 

 due to Its extreme activity and watchfulness. From the majority of species 

 of Herpestes, the Afncar small mungoose (Helogale jmrra) differs in 

 haying only three pairs of premolar teeth in each jaw ; the first of these 

 being approximated to (he canine, and thus distincuishin" the genus 

 from the few species of HerpesUs with a similar number of teeth, in all of 

 which there is a gap between the canine and the first tooth of the premolar 

 series. '■ 



Africa is the home of several peculiar generic types of mungooses. First, 

 there are the three species of four-toed mungooses {Bdeogah), distinguished 

 by having but four toes to each foot ; the soles of the hind-feet bein| hairy. 

 Ihe South African pencilled mungoose (Cnudi. pcniclllata) is the sole 

 member of another genus with five front and four hind toes ; but more easily 

 defined fcy the presence of a hole in the centre of the peculiarly-shaped 

 auditory bulla of the skull, the soles of the hind-feet heiiw hairy A third 



