CHAPTER VI.

THE CIVET FAMILY.

General Characteristics of the Civet Family--Their Scent, Skull, and Teeth--THE AFRICAN CIVET--Its Characters and Habits--THE ASIATIC CIVET--THE LESSER CIVET--THE GENETTE--THE MUNGOOS, or ICHNEUMON--Curious Superstition regarding it--THE CRAB MUNGOOS--THE PARADOXURE--THE BINTURONG.

The name of this family[74] is given to it from the fact that the most important forms included in it are what are known as Civets, or Civet Cats, animals from which the well-known perfume of that name is obtained.

The civet is a white, fatty substance, found in two curious little pouches or turnings-in of the skin just under the animal’s tail. Thus Touchstone says: “Civet is of a baser birth than tar; the very uncleanly flux of a Cat.” The perfume “is procured by scraping the inside of the pouch with an iron spatula at intervals, about twice a week. If the animal is in good condition and a male, especially if he has been irritated, a drachm or thereabouts is obtained each time. The quantity collected from the female does not equal that secreted by the male. Civet, like most other articles of this nature, is much adulterated, and it is rare to get it quite pure. The adulteration is effected with suet or oil, to make it heavier.”

Civet is far less esteemed as a perfume now than in former times; its odour is rank and almost overpoweringly strong, so that musk and other vegetable perfumes are now generally preferred. But in Shakspere’s time it was quite “the thing.” Don Pedro, in “Much Ado,” says of Benedick: “Nay, he rubs himself with civet: can you smell him out by that?” And Claudio answers: “That’s as much as to say, the sweet youth’s in love.”

The animals comprised in this group are confined entirely to the Old World, where they are represented in South Europe by the domesticated Genette; in Africa and South Asia by the true Civet (_Viverra_), the Ichneumons, so celebrated for their propensity for eating Crocodile’s eggs, the curious Paradoxures, and many others.

In anatomical characters, as well as in external appearance, the animals are related both to the Cat family and to the Hyænas, as will be seen by comparing the various points of their structure with those of the two families just named. They are mostly long-bodied, short-legged animals, with stiffish fur, a long tail, and a sharp muzzle. They walk on their toes, of which they have five on each foot, like Cats; many of them, however, keeping the wrist and ankle much nearer the ground than the Cats do, and being consequently distinguished as _semi-plantigrade_. They also wander from the regular Cat-structure in the matter of their claws, which are only _half_ retractile, the elastic ligament not attaining the same perfection as in the Cats. Thus we conclude that in this respect, at any rate, the Civets are less _specialised_ than the Cats proper; they approach more nearly to the central plan of Mammalian structure, and are less perfect as Carnivores. We shall see that the same is the case with respect to their other characters, such as the skull and teeth.

The skull is not unlike what a Cat’s would be if it were put on the bed of Procrustes and pulled out; for, in correspondence with the length of the snout in these creatures, the face part of the skull is long in comparison with the brain-containing part. The cheek-arches, also, are by no means so broad as in the _Felidæ_, in correspondence with the less size of the jaw muscles. But the character of the base of the skull is pretty much the same. There is, as in Cats, the large swollen _bulla_, or ear-drum bone, the small opening flush with the outer wall of the bulla, and the clamping bone closely applied to its hinder wall.

The teeth of the Civets present many interesting differences from those of the Cat tribe. In the first place, in accordance with the less perfectly carnivorous habit of the group, the jaws are longer, and, consequently, not so powerful as in the Cat; the number of teeth also is considerably increased. The incisors and canines remain the same, but the premolars are increased to four, and the molars to two on each side of each jaw,[75] so that there are no less than forty teeth, instead of thirty only, as in the Cats. Then the form of the teeth is altered; the canines are of far less proportional size, not having the same amount of hard work to do as the great dog teeth of the Lion or Tiger; the grinders, too, lose their scissor-blade form, and exhibit on their upper surfaces little lumps, or _cusps_, thereby developing a grinding surface such as no Cat has. This is especially the case in the Paradoxures, or Palm-Cats, which have quite lost all carnivorous habits, and feed chiefly on the fruit of palm-trees.

THE AFRICAN CIVET.[76]

This animal, by its rough spotted skin, calls to mind the Hyæna, to which, however, it is inferior in size, being hardly three feet long. It differs also from our laughing friend in many more important particulars. Its legs are shorter, its tail longer and not so bushy, its snout more pointed, its ears shorter, and its expression less villainous-looking. It is found in the North of Africa and in Eastern Asia.

This animal is the chief of the civet producers, its scent-glands being large and secreting constantly. At the Zoological Gardens the specimen in captivity rubs the perfume against the walls of the cage, where it is scraped up by the keeper, for whom it is a not unimportant perquisite.

The hair is long, coarse, of a brownish-grey colour, and marked with interrupted transverse bands or spots. On the middle line of the back and between the shoulders its hair is longer, forming a sort of mane. The snout is white, the tail ringed with black.

“The Civet approaches, in its habits, nearest to the Foxes and smaller Cats, preferring to make its predatory excursions against birds and smaller quadrupeds in the night, although, like other Carnivora, it will occasionally attack its prey in the daytime. In a state of captivity it becomes in a degree tame, but never familiar, and is dangerous to handle. The young ones feed on farinaceous food--millet-pap, for instance--with a little flesh or fish, and when old on raw flesh. Many of them are kept in North Africa, to obtain the perfume which bears the name of the animal, and brings a high price.”

The great naturalist, Cuvier, says of a Civet kept at Paris:--“Its musky odour was always perceptible, but became stronger than usual when the animal was irritated. At such times little lumps of odoriferous matter fell from its pouch. These masses were also produced when the animal was left alone, but only at intervals of fifteen or twenty days. This Civet passed nearly all day and the whole night in sleeping, rolling itself up with its head between its legs; it was necessary to threaten or even strike it to rouse it from its lethargy.”

THE ASIATIC CIVET.[77]

The Asiatic Civet, large Civet Cat, or Zibet, “inhabits Bengal, extending northwards into Nepaul and Sikkim, and into Cuttack, Orissa, and Central India on the south. It also extends into Assam, Burmah, Southern China, and parts of Malayana. It is said to frequent brushwood and grass, also the dense thorny scrub that usually covers the bends of tanks. It is very carnivorous, and destructive to poultry, game, &c., but will also, it is said, eat fish, crabs, and insects. Hounds, and indeed all Dogs, are greatly excited by the scent of the Civet, and will leave any other scent for it. It will readily take to water if hard pressed.”

The Zibet is forty-seven to fifty-six inches in length, from thirteen to twenty of this being taken up by the tail. It is of a yellowish-grey colour, with black spots and stripes. The throat and sides of the neck are white, and the fine tail is ringed with black.

This species is said to be tamed more easily than its African relative; but of this, as well as of its habits, very little is known.

THE LESSER CIVET.[78]

The Lesser Civet, or Rasse, is found in the island of Java, as well as in many parts of India, such as Nepaul and Madras. “It is not an uncommon species in Hong-Kong and the adjacent islands. In Formosa it is the commonest of all the carnivorous group. Skulking during the day in the dark ravines that intersect the hilly country in the north-west, in the twilight it threads its way with great speed through the long grass, and searches the fields for small mammals and birds. It is much dreaded by the Chinese for the havoc it commits in the hen-roost; and as its skin is somewhat valued for lining to great coats, its haunts and creeps are sought after, and traps laid for it. Of these the slip-knot noose for the head and feet is the most commonly practised and the most killing. As the cool season approaches, hawkers may be daily met with, even in the villages, offering for sale the stretched skins of these animals. The poorer classes, who are unable to purchase the dearer furs, make use of these cheaper yet pretty skins.” The Rasse is about thirty-two inches in length, its tail thirteen inches. The odour of musk is so strong as to taint the skin and the flesh of the entire animal. “The Chinese,” says Mr. Swinhoe, “eat the flesh of this animal; but a portion that I had cooked was so affected with the Civet odour that I could not palate it.”

The Rasse is a much smaller animal than the two preceding species, its head and body together being about twenty-two or twenty-three inches long, and its tail sixteen or seventeen. It is of a yellowish or brownish-grey colour, with longitudinal bands on the back, and regular rows of spots on the side. The tail has eight or nine complete dark rings.

In India it is kept tame, the natives often domesticating it for the purpose of more conveniently extracting the civet.

THE GENETTE.[79]

This is the only Viverrine animal common in Europe, in some parts of which it is a regularly domesticated animal, and catches Mice as well as a Cat. Besides living in all the southern parts of Europe, it is found in the whole of Africa north of the Sahara, that wonderful desert which constitutes a boundary as efficient in preventing the dispersal of animals as an ocean. In this, as in many other cases, the North African animals are identical, or agree closely with those of Europe, while those of trans-Saharal Africa are of an entirely different character.

The fur of the Genette is of a grey colour, “spotted with small black or brown patches, which are sometimes round and sometimes oblong. The tail, which is as long as the body (about twenty-one inches), is ringed with black and white, the black rings being to the number of nine or eleven. There are white spots on the eyebrows, the cheeks, and the end of the nose.”

The civet-pouches are, in this genus, reduced to very slight depressions at the sides of the root of the tail, and although the odour of the animal is tolerably strong--yet not disagreeably so, as in the Civet--there is no perceptible secretion from these pouches.

THE MUNGOOS, OR ICHNEUMON.[80]

The Ichneumons, or Mungooses, form a well-defined genus of Weasel-like animals, with semi-plantigrade feet, five toes provided with somewhat retractile claws, and long tails. The species now under consideration is found in Southern India as well as “in the North-west Provinces and the Punjab, and throughout the Deccan up to the Nerbudda River. It frequents alike the open country and low jungles, being found in dense hedgerows, thickets, holes in banks, &c., and it is very destructive to such birds as frequent the ground,” for it only sucks the blood, and so kills many birds before it is satisfied.

It is sixteen or seventeen inches long, its tail fourteen, and is of a tawny yellowish-grey colour. The head is marked with reddish and yellowish rings, so arranged as to produce a resultant iron-grey hue.

There is a curious superstition about the Mungoos, of which Sir Emerson Tennent says: “I have found universally that the natives of Ceylon attach no credit to the European story of the Mungoos (_H. griseus_) resorting to some plant, which no one has yet succeeded in identifying, as an antidote against the bite of the venomous Serpents on which it preys. There is no doubt that, in its conflicts with Cobra di Capello and poisonous Snakes, which it attacks with as little hesitation as the harmless ones, it may be seen occasionally to retreat, and even to retire into the jungle, and, it is added, to eat some vegetable; but a gentleman, who had been a frequent observer of its exploits, assures me that most usually the herb it resorted to was grass, and if this were not at hand, almost any other plant that grew near seemed equally acceptable. Hence has probably arisen the long list of plants, such as the _Ophioxylon serpentinum_[81] and _Ophiorhiza mungos_,[82] the _Aristolochia indica_,[83] the _Mimosa octandria_,[84] and others, each of which has been asserted to be the Ichneumon’s specific; whilst their multiplicity is demonstrative of the non-existence of any one in particular on which the animal relies as an antidote. Were there any truth in the tale as regards the Mungoos, it would be difficult to understand why creatures, such as the Secretary-bird and the Falcon, and others, which equally destroy Serpents, should be left defenceless, and the Ichneumon alone provided with a prophylactic. Besides, were the Ichneumon inspired by that courage which would result from the consciousness of security, it would be so indifferent to the bite of the Serpent that we might conclude that, both in its approaches and its assaults, it would be utterly careless as to the precise mode of its attack. Such, however, is far from being the case; and, next to its audacity, nothing could be more surprising than the adroitness with which it escapes the spring of the Snake under a due sense of danger, and the cunning with which it makes its arrangements to leap upon the back and fasten its teeth in the neck of the Cobra. It is this display of instinctive ingenuity that Lucan celebrates when he paints the Ichneumon diverting the attention of the Asp by the motion of his bushy tail,[85] and then seizing it in the midst of its confusion.”

“The mystery of the Mungoos and its antidote has been referred to the supposition that there may be some peculiarity in its organisation which renders it proof against the poison of the Serpent. It remains for future investigation to determine how far this conjecture is founded on truth; and whether in the blood of the Mungoos there exists any element or quality which acts as a prophylactic. Such exceptional provisions are not without precedent in the animal economy. The Hornbill feeds with impunity on the deadly fruit of the Strychnos;[86] the milky juice of some species of Euphorbia, which is harmless to Oxen, is invariably fatal to the Zebra; and the Tsetse Fly, the pest of South Africa, whose bite is mortal to the Ox, the Dog, and the Horse, is harmless to man and the untamed creatures of the forest.”

THE CRAB MUNGOOS.[87]

This animal is usually considered to be sufficiently different from the other Mungooses as to require a separate generic name. It has an almost Snake-like body, and a very long, slender snout. It is of an iron-grey colour, with a very well-marked white stripe on each side of the neck. The tail is reddish and very thick, and attains a length of eleven inches, the head and body together being eighteen inches in length.

Like the Civets, it has glands situated near the root of the tail, but these glands, instead of secreting a perfume, produce a fluid of the most abominably fetid odour, so that the beast is by no means a pleasant one to come near. Moreover, to make matters worse, the secretion of these glands does not quietly ooze out as in the Civets, but the sacs are provided with muscles, by the aid of which the animal is able to squirt out the noxious stuff to a considerable distance upon any offending person.

“This curious animal has been found in the South-east Himalayas, extending into Assam and Arakan. In its habits it is somewhat aquatic, preferring, it is said by Hodgson, Frogs and Crabs. It lives in burrows in the valleys of the lower and central regions of Nepaul.”

THE COMMON PARADOXURE.[88]

This animal, and other species of the same genus, are often called “Tree Cats,” or “Palm Cats,” but as they are not Cats at all, it is better to throw over the incorrect English name, and follow the plan which, as the reader may see, is adopted on the labels at the Zoological Gardens in this and similar cases: that is, Anglicise the Latin name, even at the risk of using a somewhat long and ugly word; but, as Milton says:--

“Why, is it harder, sirs, than Gordon, Colkitto, or Macdonnel, or Galasp? Those rugged names to our like mouths grow sleek, That would have made Quintilian stare and gasp.”

The name Paradoxurus--“queer-tailed”--was given to the genus from the fact that some of the animals composing it have their tails curled round into a sort of screw, the under side being thus brought uppermost. The name “Tree Cat” is very inappropriate, as the Paradoxures are not in the least like Cats, but resemble far more closely the Civets, which are, indeed, their nearest allies. They are long-bodied and short-legged, with sharp snouts and long tails, and are almost completely plantigrade.

The Common Paradoxure varies a good deal as to the character of its fur. The ground-colour is usually “brownish-black, with some dingy yellowish stripes on each side, more or less distinct, and sometimes not noticeable; a white spot above and below each eye, and the forehead with a whitish band in some; a black line from the top of the head down the centre of the nose is generally observable.” The individual hairs are yellowish at the base and blackish at the tip, and according to the state of wear and tear of these, the animal appears to be of various shades of tawny, brown, blackish, &c. The head and body together attain a length of twenty-two to twenty-five inches, the tail nineteen to twenty-one.

“This Tree Cat is a common and abundant animal throughout the greater part of India and Ceylon, extending through Burmah and the Malayan Peninsula to the island. It is most abundant in the latter wooded region, and is rarely met with in the low portions of the Deccan, Central India, and the North-West Provinces. It is very abundant on the Carnatic and Malabar coast, where it is popularly called the _Toddy Cat_, in consequence of its supposed preference for the juice of the palm, a fact which appears of general acceptation both in India and Ceylon (where it is called the Palm Cat), and which appears to have some foundation. Kelaart says: ‘It is a well-established fact that it is a consumer of palm toddy.’ It lives much in trees, especially in the palmyra and cocoa-nut palms, and is often found to have taken up its residence in the thick thatched roofs of native houses. I found a large colony of them established among the rafters of my own house at Tillichery. It is occasionally found in dry drains, outhouses, and other places of shelter. It is quite nocturnal, issuing forth at dark, and living by preference on animal food, rats, lizards, small birds, poultry, and eggs; but it also freely partakes of vegetable food, fruit, and insects. In confinement it will eat plantain, boiled rice, bread and milk, &c. Colonel Sykes mentions that it is very fond of Cockroaches. Now and then it will commit depredations in some poultry-yard; and I have often known them taken in traps baited with a Pigeon or a Chicken. In the south of India it is very often tamed, and becomes quite domestic, and even affectionate in its manners. One I saw, many years ago, at Trichinopoly, went about quite at large, and late every night used to work itself under the pillow of its owner, roll itself up into a ball, with its tail curled round its body, and sleep till a late hour of the day. It hunted for Rats, Shrews, and House Lizards. Their activity in climbing is very great; and they used to ascend and descend my house, at one of the corners of the building, in a most surprising manner.” Sir Emerson Tennent states that in Ceylon the Palm Cat makes fearful havoc with the fowls of the villagers, “and, in order to suck the blood of its victims, inflicts a wound so small as to be almost imperceptible.”

THE BINTURONG.[89]

This is a curious little animal, of a black colour, with a white border to its ears, a large head and turned-up nose, and a long, immensely thick, tapering tail, which, remarkably enough, is prehensile, like that of a New World Monkey. It is twenty-eight to thirty inches long from snout to root of tail, and the tail itself is nearly of the same length. It is sometimes called the “black Bear Cat.”

“It is slow and crouching. In its habits it is quite nocturnal, solitary, and arboreal, creeping along the large branches, and aiding itself by its prehensile tail. It is omnivorous, eating small animals, birds, insects, fruit, and plants. It is more wild and retiring than Viverrine animals in general, and it is easily tamed; its howl is loud.” It walks entirely on the soles of its feet, and its claws are not retractile. It ranges from Nepaul to Sumatra and Java.

Altogether the Binturong is a decidedly interesting animal, and has been a great puzzle to zoologists. It was formerly placed in the Racoon family, to many of the members of which it bears a very strong resemblance; but this resemblance is quite superficial, and brought about by the similarity in the mode of life, &c. In the characters of the skull and teeth, it undoubtedly belongs where we have placed it, among the Civet group. Thus it forms a capital warning to those zoologists whose knowledge is only skin-deep, and who group animals entirely by their external character, without taking into account the important points of fundamental structure, which should in every case be considered first.[90]