8 VIVERRA CIVETTA. 



Spec. Char. Tail with four or five annuli, brown 

 towards the tip ; fur grey with brown or black stripes 

 and spots ; a mane along the dorsal line. 



Civettaj Clusius, cur. post. 57 . Felis Zibethi ; Gesn. Quadr. 836. Animal 

 Zibethi ; Aldrov. 340. La Civcttc ; Buf»n, Hist. Nat. ix. 333, t. 34. Viverra 

 civetta ; Shuw, Zool. i. t. 95. Syst. Nat. Gmetin, 1. 80. 



La civette, Fr. ; Zibet, It. ; Zibet to, Sp. and Port. ; Die Zibeltkatze. Oer. 



This animal, which is remarkable for the production of the 

 perfume which bears its name, is rather more than two feet in 

 length, exclusive of the tail, which is about fourteen inches. The 

 ground colour of the body is a brownish grey, marked with 

 numerous transverse interrupted blackish or dusky bands, narrow 

 and parallel with each other on the shoulders, larger on the body 

 and on the thighs, and which are sometimes so much approximated 

 and curved as to form eye-like spots, like those of the panther. 

 The tail is marked with four or five rings of a blackish brown 

 colour, and its extremity for about six inches, is entirely black. 

 The hair is coarse, and stands up along the back so as to form a 

 kind of mane, which may be raised or depressed at pleasure. 

 The body is thickish ; the claws half retractile ; the ears short and 

 rounded, and the nose sharp and black at the tip. The legs are 

 black ; the upper lip and sides of the neck nearly white. A large 

 patch of black surrounds each eye, and passes from it to the angle 

 of the mouth, and two or three bands of the same colour pass 

 obliquely from the base of each ear, and end at the throat and 

 shoulders. The tongue is very analagous to that of the common 

 cat, being furnished with many small elevated and pointed papillae. 

 In addition to the six incisors and two canines, which are common 

 to the whole of the true carnivora, it has on each side and in each 

 jaw six molars, one of which is strong and adapted for lacerating 

 flesh, while the others are more or less of the ordinary form. The 

 most distinctive character, however, of the Civit is the organization 

 of the bag containing its peculiar scent. It opens by a narrow 

 cleft, situated between the extremity of the rectum and the parts 

 of generation, in both sexes. This cleft, says Baron Cuvier, 



