THE FOSSA, CIVETS, AND ICHNEUMONS 79 
SS <= 
usual cry, and Janet runs to her and carries off the 
bird, which she eats, feathers and all, in a very few 
minutes, if she is hungry.” When near a farm, the 
meerkats will devour eggs and young chickens. 
They are also said to eat the eggs of the large 
leopard-tortoise. The commonest is the SLENDER- 
TAILED MEERKAT. It is found all over South Africa, 
and is very common in the Karroo. It eats insects 
and grubs as well as small animals, and is commonly 
kept as a pet throughout the Colony. 
Y ee, We ; to her (her favourite is a sparrow), and makes her 
i i 
WeE have now traced the long line of the 
Carnivora from the lordly Lion, the slayer of man and 
his fiocks and herds, and the Tiger, equally formidable 
and no less specially developed for a life of rapine on 
a great scale, to creatures as small and insignificant 
s | as the Meerkat, which is at least as much an insect- 
Photo by Robert D. Carn] —=S=S=~*«~C@Phidadelphia’«S=“‘<«é@er’«S a evoourrerr ff flesh, and the Ichneumons 
BINTURONG and Civets. The highest form of specialisation in the 
The binturong is placed with the civets, It has a pre group is the delicate mechanism by which the chief 
hensile tail like the kinkajou (see page 127) 
weapons of offense, the claws, are enabled to keep 
their razor edge by being drawn up into sheaths when the animal walks, but can be instantly 
thrust out at pleasure, rigid and sharp as sword-blades. The gradual process by which this 
equipment deteriorates in the Civets and disappears in the Mongoose should be noted. There 
are many other carnivora, but none so formidable as those possessing the retractile claws. Thus 
the Bears, though often larger in bulk than the Lion, are far inferior in the power of inflicting 
violent injury. At the same time such delicate mechanism is clearly not necessary for the well- 
‘being of a species. The members of the Weasel Tribe are quite as well able to take care of 
themselves as the small cats, though they have non-retractile and not very formidable claws. 
Such a very abnornal animal as the Binruronc—of which we are able to give an excellent 
photograph—is doubtless rightly assigned to the place in which modern science has placed it. But 
it will be found that there are several very anomalous forms quite as detached from any general 
type as is the binturong. Nature 
does not make species on any strictly 
graduated scale. Many of these 
nondescript animals are so unlike 
any other group or family that they 
seem almost freaks of nature. The 
binturong is certainly one of these. 
The next group with which we 
deal is that of the Hyznas. In these 
the equipment for catching living 
prey is very weak. Speed and pursuit 
are not their mézier, but the eating of 
dead and decaying animal matter, and 
the consumption of bones. Hence 
| eee ea Sa Bom 
the jaws and teeth are highly de- Photo by L. Medland, F.Z.8.1 [North Finchley 
veloped, while the rest of the body MONGOOSE 
is degenerate. The Indian mongoose is the great enemy of snakes, Another species eats the eggs 
of the crocodile 
Laboratory of Ornitnology 
159 Sapsucker Woods Road 
Cornell University 
Pn. ry er oy.) | 
