THE HE MIG ALE. 
197 
The Musang of Java is, although a destroyer of rats and mice, rather a pest to the coffee- 
plantations, which it ravages in such a manner as to have earned the title of the Coffee Rat. It 
feeds largely upon the berries of the coffee shrub, choosing only the ripest fruit, stripping 
them of their membranous covering, and so eating them. It is a remarkable fact that the 
berries thus eaten appear to undergo no change by the process of digestion, so that the natives, 
who are free from over-scrupulous prejudices, collect the rejected berries, and are thus saved 
the trouble of picking and clearing them from the husk. 
However, the injury which this creature does to the coffee-berries is more than compensated 
by its very great usefulness as a coffee planter. For, as these berries are uninjured in their 
passage through the body of the animal, and are in their ripest state, they take root where 
they he, and in due course of time spring up and form new coffee plantations, sometimes in 
localities where they are not expected. It may be that, although the coffee seeds undergo no 
visible change in the interior of the Musang, they imbibe the animal principle, and thus 
MUSANG . — Paradoxurus fasdatus. 
become more fitted for the soil than if they had been planted without the intermediate agency 
of the creature. 
The Musang is not content with coffee-berries and other vegetable food, although it seems 
to prefer a vegetable to an animal diet. When pressed by hunger, it seeks eagerly after 
' various small quadrupeds and birds, and is often a pertinacious robber of the hen-roosts. 
The ahimal which is known as the Hemigale, is remarkable for the singularity of its 
coloring, and the mode in which the fur is diversified with lighter and darker tints. 
The color of this animal’ s fur is a grayish -brown, on which are placed six or seven large 
and bold stripes, arranged saddle-wise upon the back, being very broad above, and narrowing 
to a point towards the ribs. These bands are unconnected with each other. On the top of the 
head there is a narrow black line, and on each side of the face, a black line runs from the ear 
to the nose, surrounding the eye in its progress. The nose itself is black. Down the sides of 
the neck there are some obscure streaks, which are more conspicuous in a side light. The tail 
is marked with dark patches upon its upper surface, and latter half is black. 
The name Hemigale is Greek, and signifies, “ Semi-weasel” — and the specific title is given 
in honor of General Hardwick, who has done such good service to zoology. 
The last of the great Viverrine group of animals is the Cbyptopbocta, a creature whose 
rabbit-like mildness of aspect entirely belies its nature. 
It is a native of Madagascar, and has been brought from the southern portions of that 
wonderful island. It is much to be wished that the zoology of so prolific a country should be 
