CHAPTER III.

_THE FOSSA, CIVETS, AND ICHNEUMONS._

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THE FOSSA.

In the FOSSA Madagascar possesses an altogether peculiar animal. It is a very slender, active creature, with all its proportions much elongated. It is of a bright bay uniform colour, with thick fur, and has sharp retractile claws. It has been described as the natural connecting-link between the Civets and the Cats, anatomically speaking. Thus it has retractile claws, but does not walk on its toes, like cats, but on the soles of its feet (the hind pair of which is quite naked), like a civet. Very few have been brought to England; indeed, the first time that one was exhibited in our Zoological Gardens was only ten years ago. Formerly stories were told of its ferocity, which was compared to that of the tiger. These tales were naturally the subject of ridicule. The fossa usually attains a length of about 5 feet from snout to tail, and is the largest of the carnivora of Madagascar. A fine young specimen lately brought to London, and in the Zoological Gardens at the time of writing, is now probably full grown. It is about the same length and height as a large ocelot, but with a far longer tail, and is more slenderly built. The extreme activity of the fossa no doubt renders it a very formidable foe to other and weaker creatures. It has been described by a recent writer as being entirely nocturnal, and preying mainly on the lemurs and birds which haunt the forests of Madagascar. The animal kept at the Zoological Gardens has become fairly tame. It is fed mainly on chickens' heads and other refuse from poulterers' shops. Apparently it has no voice of any kind. It neither growls, roars, nor mews, though, when irritated or frightened, it gives a kind of hiss like a cat.

THE CIVETS AND GENETS.

The CIVETS are the first marked deviation from the Cat Family. Their bodies are elongated, their legs short, their claws only partially retractile. Some of them have glands holding a strong scent, much esteemed in old days in Europe, when "The Civet Cat" was a common inn-sign even in England. The civets are generally beautifully marked with black stripes and bands on grey. But none of them grow to any large size, and the family has never had the importance of those which contain the large carnivora, like the true cats or bears. Many of the tribe and its connections are domesticated. Some scholars have maintained that the cat of the ancient Greeks was one of them--the common genet. The fact is that both this and the domestic cat were kept by the ancients; and the genet is still used as a cat by the peasants of Greece and Southern Italy.

The AFRICAN CIVET and INDIAN CIVET are large species. The former is common almost throughout Africa. Neither of them seems to climb trees, but they find abundance of food by catching small ground-dwelling animals and birds. They are good swimmers. The Indian civet has a handsome skin, of a beautiful grey ground-colour, with black collar and markings. It is from these civets that the civet-scent is obtained. They are kept in cages for this purpose, and the secretion is scooped from the glands with a wooden spoon. They produce three or four kittens in May or June. Several other species very little differing from these are known as the MALABAR, JAVAN, and BURMESE CIVETS.

The RASSE is smaller, has no erectile crest, and its geographical distribution extends from Africa to the Far East. It is commonly kept as a domestic pet. Like all the civets, it will eat fruit and vegetables.

The GENETS, though resembling the civets, have no scent-pouch. They are African creatures, but are found in Italy, Spain, and Greece, and in Palestine, and even in the south of France. Beautifully spotted or striped, they are even longer and lower than the civet-cats, and steal through the grass like weasels.

The COMMON GENET is black and grey, the latter being the ground-colour. The tail is very long, the length being about 15 inches, while that of the body and head is only 19 inches. Small rodents, snakes, eggs, and birds are its principal food. It is kept in Southern Europe for killing rats. Several other very similar forms are found in Africa. The presence of such a very Oriental-looking animal in Europe is something of a surprise, though many persons forget that our South European animals are very like those of Africa and the East. The porcupine, which is common in Italy and Spain, and the lynx and Barbary ape are instances. A tame genet kept by an acquaintance of the writer in Italy was absolutely domesticated like a tame mongoose. It had very pretty fur, grey, marbled and spotted with black, and no disagreeable odour, except a scent of musk. It was a most active little creature, full of curiosity, and always anxious to explore not only every room, but every cupboard and drawer in the house. Perhaps this was due to its keenness in hunting mice, a sport of which it never tired. It did not play with the mice when caught as a cat does, but ate them at once.

The LINSANGS, an allied group, are met with in the East, from India to Borneo and Java. They are more slender than the genets, and more arboreal. Of the NEPALESE LINSANG Hodgson writes: "This animal is equally at home on trees and on the ground. It breeds and dwells in the hollows of decaying trees. It is not gregarious, and preys mainly on living animals." A tame female owned by him is stated to have been wonderfully docile and tractable, very sensitive to cold, and very fond of being petted. There is an allied West African species.

The PALM-CIVETS and HEMIGALES still further increase this numerous tribe. Slight differences of skull, of the markings on the tail, which may only have rings on the base, and of the foot and tail, are the naturalist's guide to their separation from the other civets; HARDWICKE'S HEMIGALE has more zebra-like markings. Borneo, Africa, India, and the Himalaya all produce these active little carnivora; but the typical palm-civets are Oriental. They are sometimes known as Toddy-cats, because they drink the toddy from the jars fastened to catch the juice. The groves of cocoanut-palm are their favourite haunts; but they will make a home in holes in the thatched roofs of houses, and even in the midst of cities. There are many species in the group.

The BINTURONG is another omnivorous, tree-haunting animal allied to the civets; but it has a prehensile tail, which few other mammals of the Old World possess. It is a blunt-nosed, heavy animal, sometimes called the Bear-cat. Very little is known of its habits. It is found from the Eastern Himalaya to Java.

The last of the Civet Family is BENNETT'S CIVET, the only instance of a cat-like animal with partly webbed feet. Found in the Malay Peninsula and in Sumatra and Borneo, it is very rare, but is known to feed on fish and crustacea, and to be semi-aquatic. The author of the chapter on the civets in the Naturalist's Library says, "It may be likened to a climbing otter."

THE MONGOOSE AND ICHNEUMON FAMILY.

These are a numerous and useful race of small mammals, feeding mainly on the creatures most annoying to man within tropical countries. Snakes, the eggs of the crocodile, large lizards, rats, mice, and other creatures known generally as "vermin," are their favourite food. It must be added that, though they are most useful in destroying these, they also kill all kinds of birds, and that their introduction into some of the West India Islands, for the purpose of killing rats, has been fatal to the indigenous bird life.

THE INDIAN MONGOOSE.

This universal favourite is one of the largest, the head and body being from 15 to 18 inches long, and the tail 14 inches. The fur is loose and long, and capable of being erected. As in all the tribe, the tint is a "pepper and salt," the "pepper" colour being sometimes blackish and sometimes red, but a speckled appearance characterises the whole group. This is the animal supposed to be immune from snake-bite. It is possibly so to some extent, for it kills and eats the poisonous snakes, and it is now known that the _eating_ of snake-poison tends to give the same protection as inoculation does against certain diseases. But it is certain that in most cases the mongoose, by its activity, and by setting up the hair on its body, which makes the snake "strike short," saves itself from being bitten.

Many descriptions of the encounters between these brave little animals and the cobra have been written. Here is one of the less known: "One of our officers had a tame mongoose, a charming little pet. Whenever we could procure a cobra--and we had many opportunities--we used to turn it out in an empty storeroom, which had a window at some height from the ground, so that it was perfectly safe to stand there and look on. The cobra, when dropped from the bag or basket, would wriggle into one of the corners of the room and there coil himself up. The mongoose showed the greatest excitement on being brought to the window, and the moment he was let loose would eagerly jump down into the room, when his behaviour became very curious and interesting. He would instantly see where the snake was, and rounding his back, and making every hair on his body stand out at right angles, which made his body appear twice as large as it really was, he would approach the cobra on tip-toe, making a peculiar humming noise. The snake, in the meantime, would show signs of great anxiety, and I fancy of fear, erecting his head and hood ready to strike when his enemy came near enough. The mongoose kept running backwards and forwards in front of the snake, gradually getting to within what appeared to us to be striking distance. The snake would strike at him repeatedly, and _appeared_ to hit him, but the mongoose continued his comic dance, apparently unconcerned. Suddenly, and with a movement so rapid that the eye could not follow it, he would pin the cobra by the back of the head. One could hear the sharp teeth crunch into the skull, and, when all was over, see the mongoose eating the snake's head and part of his body with great gusto. Our little favourite killed a great many cobras, and, so far as I could see, never was bitten."

The EGYPTIAN MONGOOSE, or ICHNEUMON, has an equally great reputation for eating the eggs of the crocodile; and the KAFFIR MONGOOSE, a rather larger South African species, is kept as a domestic animal to kill rats, mice, and snakes, of which, like the Indian kind, it is a deadly foe. There are more than twenty other species, most of much the same appearance and habits.

The smooth-nosed mongoose tribe are closely allied creatures in South Africa, mainly burrowing animals, feeding both on flesh and fruit. The CUSIMANSES of Abyssinia and West Africa are also allied to them. Their habits are identical with the above.

THE MEERKATS, OR SURICATES.

Most people who have read Frank Buckland's Life will remember the suricate which was his chief pet in Albany Street. The SURICATES, or MEERKATS, burrow all over the South African veldt, especially in the sandy parts, where they sit up outside their holes like prairie-dogs, and are seen by day. They are sociable animals, and make most amusing pets. A full-grown one is not much larger than a hedgehog, but more slender. It barks like a prairie-dog, and has many other noises of pleasure or anger. A lady, the owner of one, writes in _Country Life_: "It gets on well with the dogs and cats, especially the latter, as they are more friendly to her, and allow her to sleep by their side and on the top of them. One old cat brings small birds to her (her favourite is a sparrow), and makes her usual cry, and Janet runs to her and carries off the bird, which she eats, feathers and all, in a very few minutes, if she is hungry." When near a farm, the meerkats will devour eggs and young chickens. They are also said to eat the eggs of the large leopard-tortoise. The commonest is the SLENDER-TAILED MEERKAT. It is found all over South Africa, and is very common in the Karroo. It eats insects and grubs as well as small animals, and is commonly kept as a pet throughout the Colony.

We have now traced the long line of the Carnivora from the lordly Lion, the slayer of man and his flocks and herds, and the Tiger, equally formidable and no less specially developed for a life of rapine on a great scale, to creatures as small and insignificant as the Meerkat, which is at least as much an insect-feeder as a devourer of flesh, and the Ichneumons and Civets. The highest form of specialisation in the group is the delicate mechanism by which the chief weapons of offence, the claws, are enabled to keep their razor edge by being drawn up into sheaths when the animal walks, but can be instantly thrust out at pleasure, rigid and sharp as sword-blades. The gradual process by which this equipment deteriorates in the Civets and disappears in the Mongoose should be noted. There are many other carnivora, but none so formidable as those possessing the retractile claws. Thus the Bears, though often larger in bulk than the Lion, are far inferior in the power of inflicting violent injury. At the same time such delicate mechanism is clearly not necessary for the well-being of a species. The members of the Weasel Tribe are quite as well able to take care of themselves as the small cats, though they have non-retractile and not very formidable claws.

Such a very abnormal animal as the BINTURONG--of which we are able to give an excellent photograph--is doubtless rightly assigned to the place in which modern science has placed it. But it will be found that there are several very anomalous forms quite as detached from any general type as is the binturong. Nature does not make species on any strictly graduated scale. Many of these nondescript animals are so unlike any other group or family that they seem almost freaks of nature. The binturong is certainly one of these.

The next group with which we deal is that of the Hyænas. In these the equipment for catching living prey is very weak. Speed and pursuit are not their _métier_, but the eating of dead and decaying animal matter, and the consumption of bones. Hence the jaws and teeth are highly developed, while the rest of the body is degenerate.

The question of the comparative intelligence of the Apes and Monkeys, and the carnivorous animals subsequently described in these pages, is an interesting one. It would seem at first as if the Cat Tribe and their relations, which have to obtain their prey by constant hunting, and often to make use of considerable reflection and thought to bring their enterprises against other animals to a successful issue, would be more likely to develop intelligence and to improve in brain-power than the great Apes, which find an easy living in the tropical forests, and only seek fruits and vegetables for their food. Yet it is quite certain that this is not the case. The Cat Tribe, with the exception of the domesticated cats, does not show high intelligence. Even the latter are seldom trained to obey man, though they learn to accommodate themselves to his ways of life. There is no evidence that cats have any sense of number, or that any of them in a wild state make any effort to provide shelter for themselves or construct a refuge from their enemies, though the Leopard will make use of a cave as a lair. In matters requiring intelligence and co-operation, such rodents as the Beaver, or even the Squirrel, are far beyond the feline carnivora in sagacity and acquired or inherited ingenuity. Except the Stoat, which sometimes hunts in packs, no species of the carnivora yet dealt with in this work combines to hunt its prey, or for defence against enemies. Each for itself is the rule, and even among the less-specialised flesh-eating animals of the other groups it is only the Dog Tribe which seems to understand the principles of association for a common object.

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