480 ON INDIAN CIVETS. 



" The Viverrula are not one-third oi the size of the Viverra ; they 

 have the true vermiform structure ; the thumbs are more remote than 

 in Viverra ; and the animals are enabled, and wont with their more 

 acute and more feline talons, to climb with facility, a faculty wholly 

 denied to the Viverra. Lastly, whereas the latter are more common in 

 the mountains than in the plains, the former are exclusively confined 

 to the plains, where they appear to be spread universally from Cape 

 Comorin to the base of the Himalaya. How many distinct species India 

 possesses of the small, as well as of the large Civets, may perhaps be 

 disputed, but Bengalensis, Indica, et Rasse, certainly appear to be dis- 

 tinct, whilst, if Civetta et Zibetha be justly sundered, our present sub- 

 ject, or Melanurus, may prove to be independent of either. The young 

 I procured are believed, with some reason, to have belonged to this 

 species, which therefore would aj)pear to produce four perfect young 

 ones at a birth, at the beginning of summer (the teats are six and ven- 

 tral) ; and as these helpless little creatures were found on the bare 

 ground, the species would seem seldom or never voluntarily to seek 

 the shelter of holes or burrows, though I have known it do so for safety 

 when pursued. 



" These animals, in the mountains, dwell in forests or detached 

 wood and copses, whence they wander freely into the more open country 

 by day (occasionally at least) as well as by night ; for I have seen one 

 killed at noon three miles from cover, in the midst of the fields of this 

 valley. They are solitary and single wanderers, even the pair being 

 seldom together, and they feed promiscuously upon small mammals, 

 birds, eggs, snakes, frogs, insects, besides some fruits and roots. In the 

 Taroi the larger Viverrae are found in uncultivated copses, and they are 

 said further to protect themselves by burrowing ; at least they are fre- 

 quently taken in holes, whether made by themselves or obtained by 

 ejection of other animals. The Mushars, a low caste of woodmen, eat 

 their flesh. The Tarai name of the animals is Bhraun, the hill name 

 Nit Biraloo. The lesser species are called in the Tarai Sayer and Bug- 

 myul, indiscriminately, but not Katas, that name being given to a dis- 

 tinct animal. The Tarai specimens of the Bhraun agree sufficiently 

 with those obtained in the mountains, but I have only procured skins 

 from the former tract ; nor is there any essential difference of habits or 

 manners in the high-land and low-land animals, though subterranean 

 dwellings are seldom used, if at all, by the mountaineers." 



