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THE STORY OF THE L1NSANG. 
The spotted linsang, which is found from the Southeastern Himalaya h> 
Yunan, is a somewhat smaller animal; the length of the head and body being- 
only fifteen inches. It is readily distinguished by its coloration; the back being 
marked with rows of large oblong spots, instead of bands. 
A tame specimen of this beautiful animal was once kept by a Mr. Hodgson 
in Nipal. He describes it as very docile, fond of notice, and never giving vent 
to any kind of sound. It was free from the strong odor characteristic of the 
true civets, and was fed upon raw meat. He states that in its wild condition 
this species is equally at home on trees and on the ground; and that it dwells 
and breeds in the hollows of decayed trees. It preys chiefly upon small birds, 
upon which it is wont to pounce from the coover of the grass. 
The African linsang, of which some of the distinctive characters have been 
already mentioned, is found only on the West Coast, in Sierra Leone and 
Fernando' Po, and is, therefore, widely separated from its Oriental relatives. 
The tail is somewhat longer than the head and body, measuring upwards of 
forty and one-half inches ; whereas the total length of the head and body is but 
thirty-eight inches. The spots, as already mentioned, are smaller than in the 
Oriental linsangs, and, with the exception of some stripes on the back of the 
head, and a line extending from the neighborhood of the ear to' the shoulder, 
do' not run together into lines or patches. The tail is peculiar in that the light 
rings separating the large dark bands are divided in the middle by very narrow 
dark rings. 
