igo 



THE VIVERRINES. 



ig 



stiil sold at high prices. When caught youn 

 these creatures can be tamed, but adult civet- 

 cats can at most be trained to present their 

 pouch between the bars of the cage so as to 

 allow of the precious contents being extracted 

 with a spoon. The fragrant matter is then 

 well mixed with oil and inclosed in small tin 

 boxes, the lids of which are afterwards .secured 

 by solder. The ani- 

 mals are fed with fresh 

 meat, chiefly that of 

 birds, which they pre- 

 fer to any other kind 

 of food. The better 

 the civet-cat is fed the 

 more civet does it yield. 

 The smell pollutes the 

 whole neighbourhood. 

 To carry on such a 

 business one would 

 really need to have no 

 nose at all! 



The two species are 

 pretty like one another. 

 The African civet at- 

 tains the size of a fox, 

 the Indian is smaller. 

 The fur is coarse and 

 thick. A sort of mane 

 which the creature can 

 erect extends along the 

 whole of the back as far as the long bushy tail. 

 The ground-colour in the African species is 

 yellowish-gray, and the adornment is in the 

 form of irregular dark brown patches. The 

 Indian species has a longer and leaner body. 

 The patches unite into stripes, and the ground- 

 colour is brownish. Both species sleep dur- 

 ing the day, by night they hunt after birds. 

 They are said to be peculiarly fond of eggs, 

 and to show great skill in searching out nests. 

 But it must again be admitted that not much 

 is known about their habits in a state of 

 freedom. The African species is found 

 throughout Central Africa, from Zanzibar to 



the mainland but also the islands, and the 

 Malays have introduced it almost everywhere, 

 even into the islands of the Pacific Ocean. 



The slender Delundung or Linsang [Prio- 

 nodon gracilis), fig. 92, exhibits a still more 

 pronounced form of carnivorous dentition 

 than the civet-cats. The last molar of the 

 upper jaw is almost always absent ; the other 

 _ molars and the premo- 



lars have sharp points 

 like those of an insec- 

 tivore; the canines are 

 slender, very sharp at 

 the ends, and recurved. 

 This wonderfully ele- 

 gant little animal, whose 

 jody attains the length 

 of about 16, and the 

 tail about 12 inches, is 

 even more slender and 

 short- legged than the 

 genet. The head is 

 rather long, the snout 

 pointed, the pupils ver- 

 tical as in the cat tribe, 

 the short smooth silky 

 tur prettily marbled 

 with dark brown 

 •j*atches on a yellow 

 ound. The tail is 



Rg 92 — 1 he Ddundun^ ri Liiis-in^ (1 1 1 ii in :;i mli ) 



-'TTihged, and has a white 



point. The creature leads a nocturnal life in 

 Java and the Malay Peninsula, and feeds 

 almost exclusively on birds. The natives, 

 who call it "the little tiger," both on account 

 of the savageness of its disposition and the 

 colour and markings of its coat, detest it as a 

 bold and dexterous jjlunderer of the poultry- 

 yard. 



The Paradoxures or Musangs [Parado.xitriis) 

 manifest, in opposition to the previous species, 

 a decided tendency to a vegetable diet in the 

 structure of their blunt-tubercled molar teeth, 

 which soon get worn down. This genus, 

 which is very rich in species, has been sub- 



Guinea. The Indian species inhabits not only divided into .several sub-genera, founded on 



