198 Catalogue of Mammalia inhabiting [No. 171. 



Viverra Zibetha, apud Fred. Cuvier. 



Viverra Zibetha, Lin. apud Schinz.* 



" Musang jebat" of the Malays of the Peninsula. 

 Hab. — Pinang, Singapore, Malayan Peninsula. 



Sumatra, Borneo, Celebes, Amboyna, Philippines. 

 This species is readily distinguished from V. Zibetha by a continuous 

 longitudinal black band occupying the upper surface of the tail, the 

 numerous irregular rings being separated only on its inferior half. (Gray : 

 Proceed. Zool. Society, 1832, p. 63.) The number and distance of the 

 half rings on the lower surface of the tail, vary in different individuals, 

 some of which have either the entire tail, or the anterior half or third 

 of the tail, thus marked, the rest being black. The very young animal 

 is generally of a much darker ground colour than the adult, and the 

 black marks are therefore less conspicuous. Under certain lights the 

 colour appears uniformly black. Viverra Tangalunga and Zibetha, how- 

 ever similar in habits and general colours, neither live nor breed toge- 

 ther. Placed side by side, the living animals present a marked dissimi- 

 larity of countenance, which although obvious to the eye, would be most 

 difficult, if possible at all, to convey in words. The female has three 

 pairs of Mammae, and produces from one to three young. The Malays 

 of the Peninsula distinguish by different names the Zibetha and the 

 Tangalunga, but as they suppose the civet of the former species to be 

 of better quality, perhaps because it is scarcer, they will frequently offer 

 for sale individuals of the latter, exceedingly numerous species, impos- 

 ing upon it the name of V. Zibetha: " Tanggalong" of the Peninsula. 

 The largest individual of the present species observed, measured in 

 length from the apex of the nose to the root of the tail three feet and one 

 inch ; the tail one foot five and a half inches. In a younger, a female, 

 three feet five and a half inches in length, of which the tail one foot and 

 one inch, the intestinal canal was of the following dimensions : 



Small Intestines, . . . . . . 7 feet 5 inches. 



Large ditto, . . . . . . . . ,, 9 



Caecum, . . . . . . . . ,, 1 ,, 



Costse verae, seven pairs ; spuria?, six pairs == thirteen pairs. 



* The true Viverra Zibetha, Linne, is quoted by Schinz under the denominations 

 oi V. bengalensis, Hardwicke ('!), and V. melanura, Hodgson. 



