CARNARIA. 
85 
covered with long hair, and have a tuft at each ear. The tail is long, hairy, and has a propensity to 
curl, as if prehensile ; [which it really is : their whiskers are long and conspicuous]. 
They are also natives of India, for the first knowledge of which we are indebted to M. du Vaucel. One species 
{let. albifrons, F. Cuv.) is grey, with the tail and sides of the muzzle black ; of the size of a large Cat ; from 
Boutan. Another {let. ater, F. Cuv.) is black, with a whitish muzzle, and as large as a stout Dog ; from Malacca. 
[The latter is merely the male, and the other the female of the same species, which is rather a slow-moving 
animal, allied to the last in habit, of a timid disposition, and easily tamed. The Ictide doree, F. Cuv., is a 
species of Musang {Paradoxurus). ] 
The Coatimondis {Nasm, Storr), — 
To the dentition, tail [which however is longer], nocturnal life, and slow dragging gait of the 
Raccoons, add a singularly elongated and moveable snout. Their feet are semi-palmate, notwith- 
standing which they climb trees [with great facility, and descend them head foremost, clinging by 
their hind feet, which they almost reverse]. Their long claws serve them to dig with ; [and they feed 
voraciously on earth-worms, slugs and snails, also on small mammalians (which they catch adroitly), 
birds and their eggs, together with fruits and vegetables]. They inhabit the warm parts of America, 
and subsist on nearly the same food as our Martens. 
The Red Coatimondi {Viverra nasua, Lin. ; N. rufa, Desm.)— Rufo-fulvous, the muzzle and caudal annulations 
brown. And the Brown Coatimondi (F. narica, Lin. ; N.fusca, Desm.) — Brown, with white spots over the eye 
and snout. [These animals employ their claws to divide flesh, which they thus tear and separate before devour- 
ing it.] 
The Kinkajou {Cercoleptes, Illiger) — 
Can scarcely he introduced elsewhere than in this place [which is unquestionably its true position]. 
To the plantigrade gait, it joins a very long tail, prehensile, as in the Sapajous*, a short muzzle, slender 
and extensile tongue, with two pointed grinders before, and three tuberculous ones backward, [the 
first of which latter represents the carnivorous tooth]. 
But one species is known {Viverra caudivolvula, Gm.), from the warm parts of America and some of the Great 
Antilles, where it is named Potto-\ : size of a Fitchet, [and larger] ; the fur woolly, and of a yellowish [or golden] 
brown : nocturnal, and of a mild and gentle disposition ; subsisting on fruits, honey, milk, blood, &c. [It is emi- 
nently an arboreal quadruped, which moves with a cautious gait, recalling to mind some of the Qpadrumana. 
There is a Mexican animal to which Lichtenstein has assigned the generic name Bassaris, and which 
Blainville and others have associated with the Viverrine genera, but which I greatly suspect must 
rather be placed near the Kinkajou, though I have not at present the means of ascertaining its cha- 
racters. In form it is not unlike a Musang {Paradoxurus.) J 
The remaining genera are only semi-plantigrade (that is, they do not bring the heel quite 
to the ground), and possess but one tuberculous grinder, which varies greatly in extent of 
surface : none of them become torpid in winter ; and they all emit, when alarmed, a defensive 
odour, which in many is horribly fetid.] 
The Badgers {Meles, Storr), § — 
Which Linnaeus placed, together with the Raccoons, in his genus of Bears, have one very small tooth 
behind the canine, then two pointed molars, followed in the upper jaw by one whieh we begin to 
recognize as carnivorous, from the trace of a cutting character which it exhibits on its outer side ; 
behind this is a square tuberculous tooth, the largest of the series ; and, on the lower jaw, the last but 
one likewise commences to bear some resemblance to the inferior carnivorous tooth ; but as there 
are two tubercles on its inward border as elevated as its cutting point, it performs the office of a 
tubereulous one ; the last below is very small. [The Badger, in faet, has precisely the same den- 
tition as the Weasels and Otters, presenting a modification of that type for less carnivorous regimen.] 
These animals have the tardy gait and nocturnal habit of all the preceding ; their tail is short, [and 
* One which I had an opportunity of studying, as it ran about loose 
in a room, possessed the prehensile power of the tail in an extremely 
moderate degree, merely resting slightly on this organ, which it 
stiffened throughout its length, and never coiled in the manner of the 
Sapajous. — Ed. 
t This term, applied by the negroes in Africa to a Lemurine animal 
(Perodicticus) , has been introduced by them, and misapplied in other 
countries. — Ed. 
t Strong presumptive evidence that the Basset {Bassaris) does not 
appertain to the Viverrine group, is afforded by the restriction of the 
geographic range of tlie latter to the eastern hemisphere, in every 
other instance. The presence or absence of a coecum would decide 
the question. 
§ Taxus of some systematists : but this name is employed in Botany 
for the Yew genus. — Ed. 
