FOSSANE. 
them very young, and kept them about two or 
three months, in which time they had grown 
pretty famihar. I never found any bag in the 
parts you mention; but only observed, that 
their excrements had the same smell as those of 
our pole-cat. They eat both flesh and fruir, 
but preferred the latter. The Fo^sane is a ve- 
ry wild animal, and extremely difficult to be 
tamed. Though those which I had were ta- 
ken very young, they retained the aspecl and 
chara6ler of ferocity; which appeared to me 
somewhat extraordinary, in an animal which 
prefers fruit for it's food. The eye of the 
Fossane represents a black globe, very large in 
comparison with the size of it's head, which 
gives this animal a miscliievous look." 
Buffon adds, that tli^ Berba, or Bcrbc, of 
Guinea, is said by travellers, to have a more" 
pointed snout, and a smaller bodv, than our 
cat, and to be speckled like the civet. We 
know, concludes BulFon, of no other animal 
with which these indications so well agree, as 
that which we have just described under the 
name of the Fossane. 
T 
