Part 39 (2/2)

NATIVE NAMES.--_Taras_, _Hundar_, _Jhirak_ (in Hurriana); _Lakhar-baghar_, _Lokra-bagh_, Hindi; _Naukra-bagh_, Bengali; _Rerha_ in Central India; _Kirba_ and _Kat-Kirba_, Canarese; _Korna-gandu_, Telegu.

HABITAT.--All over India; but as far as I can gather not in Burmah nor in Ceylon; it is not mentioned in Blyth's and Kellaart's catalogues. It is also found in Northern Africa and throughout Asia Minor and Persia; it is common in Palestine.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Hyaena striata_.]

DESCRIPTION.--Pale yellowish-grey, with transverse tawny or blackish bands which encircle the body, and extend downwards on to the legs. The neck and back are maned.

SIZE.--Head and body, 3-1/2 feet; tail, about 1-1/2 feet.

This repulsive and cowardly creature is yet a useful beast in its way. Living almost exclusively on carrion, it is an excellent scavenger. Most wild animals are too active for it, but it feeds on the remains left by the larger felines, and such creatures as die of disease, and can, on a pinch, starve for a considerable time. The African spotted hyaena is said to commit great havoc in the sheep-fold. The Indian one is very destructive to dogs, and constantly carries off pariahs from the outskirts of villages. The natives declare that the hyaena tempts the dogs out by its unearthly cries, and then falls upon them. Dr. Jerdon relates a story of a small dog belonging to an officer of the 33rd M. N. I. (the regiment he was with when I first knew him) being carried off by a hyaena whose den was known. Some of the sepoys went after it, entered the cave, killed the hyaena, and recovered the dog alive, and with but little damage done to it.

The hyaena is of a timorous nature, seldom, if ever, showing fight.

Two of them nearly ran over me once as I was squatting on a deer run waiting for sambar, which were being beaten out of a hill. I flung my hat in the face of the leading one, on which both turned tail and fled. The Arabs have a proverb, ”As cowardly as a hyaena.”

The _Cryptoprocta ferox_ is not an inhabitant of India, being found only in the interior of Madagascar. The genus contains only one species, a most savage little animal; it is the most perfect link between the cats and the civets, having retractile claws, one more premolar in each jaw; five toes, and semi-plantigrade feet. It should properly come before the hyaenas, to which the next in order is the South African Aard-wolf (_Proteles Lalandii_), which forms the connection between the hyaena and the civet, though more resembling the former. It is placed in a family by itself, which contains but one genus and species. It has the sloping back of the hyaena, the hind legs being lower than the fore, and it might almost, from its shape and colouring, be taken for that animal when young. The skull however is prolonged, and the teeth are civet-like. It is nocturnal and gregarious, several living in the same burrow. Like the hyaena it lives on carrion. It has a fifth toe on the fore feet.

VIVERRIDAE--THE CIVET FAMILY.

The Civets are confined to the Old World; they are mostly animals with long bodies, sharp muzzle, short legs, long tapering tail and coa.r.s.e fur; they are semi-plantigrade, walking on their toes, but keeping the wrist and ankle nearer to the ground than do the cats; the claws are only partially retractile; the skull is longer in the snout than that of felines, and, altogether narrower, the zygomatic arches not being so broad, the base of the skull is much the same, and the _bulla tympani_ shews little difference; the teeth, however, are decidedly different. There are four premolars and two molars on each side of each jaw, which, with the normal number of canines and incisors, give forty teeth in all; the canines are moderate in size, and sharp; the premolars conical, and the molars cuspidate, which gives them a grinding surface instead of the trenchant character of the cats; the tongue is rough, the papillae being directed backwards; the pupils are circular. The most striking characteristics of the family is, however, the sub-caudal pouch, which in most produces an odorous substance, and in the typical civet the perfume of that name.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Dent.i.tion of Civet.]

Dental formula: inc., 3--3/3--3; can., 1--1/1--1; premolars, 4--4/3--3; molars, 2--2/3--3.

The family contains the Civet, Genette, Linsang, Suricate, Binturong and Mongoose, though this last is separated by Jerdon, who follows Blyth.

_GENUS VIVERRA_.

a.n.a.l pouch large, and divided into two sacs secreting the _civet_ perfume of commerce; pupil vertical and oblong; fur spotted and coa.r.s.e, lengthened into an erectile mane on the back; diet mixed carnivorous and vegetivorous.

NO. 221. VIVERRA ZIBETHA.

_The Large Civet Cat_ (_Jerdon's No. 119_).

NATIVE NAMES.--_Katas_, Hindi; _Mach-bhondar_, Bengali, also _Bagdos_ and _Pudo-gaula_ in some parts; _Bhran_ in the Nepal Terai; _Nit-biralu_, Nepalese; _Kung_, Bhotia; _Saphiong_, Lepcha, (_Jerdon_); _Khyoung-myen_, Aracanese.

HABITAT.--According to Jerdon this species inhabits Bengal, extending northwards in Nepal and Sikhim, and into Cuttack, Orissa, and Central India on the south, but is replaced in Malabar by the next species; it is also found in a.s.sam and Burmah, but apparently not in Ceylon, where _V. Malaccensis_ represents the family.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Viverra zibetha_.]

DESCRIPTION.--h.o.a.ry or yellowish grey, generally spotted and striped with black; some specimens are marked with wavy bands, others are almost free from marks; throat white, with a transverse black band, another on each side of the neck; under-parts white; tail with six black rings; limbs dark.

SIZE.--Head and body, 33 to 36 inches; tail 13 to 20.

”This animal frequents brushwood and gra.s.s, and the th.o.r.n.y scrub that usually covers the bunds of tanks. It is very carnivorous and destructive to poultry, game, &c., but will also, it is said, eat fish, crabs and insects. It breeds in May and June, and has usually four or five young. Hounds, and indeed all dogs, are greatly excited by the scent of this civet, and will leave any other scent for it.

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