Page:Natural History (1848).djvu/88

78 not sheathed, but are raised from the ground, as the animals walk. At the hinder part of the body is a membranous pouch, in which peculiar glands secrete an unctuous substance, which in many species is powerfully odorous, and was formerly much esteemed in perfumery.

The animals of this Family are of rather small size; the muzzle is pointed; the body lengthened; the limbs usually short; the fur thick; the tail usually long, often bushy. In form, they remind us of some of the larger Musteladæ, and also of the Racoons. They vary much in the intensity of their carnivorous appetite, some genera being little behind the Felidæ, while others subsist largely on a fruit diet. They are confined to the warmer regions of the Old World.

The true Civets approach very closely the Cats, in many of their characters, as well as in their sanguinary appetites, and their nocturnal and predatory habits. Their dental system is thus arranged: inc. $6⁄6$; can. $1—1⁄1—1$; mol. $6—6⁄6—6$:=40. The scent-pouch is double; the secretion copious and odoriferous; the pupil of the eye remains round in contracting; the claws are half retractile. A loose mane, capable of erection, runs along the back, more or less conspicuously; when the animal is irritated, it sets up this mane and hisses in the manner of a cat. Four species are described; inhabiting Africa, India, and the great islands adjacent: they are indolent by day, but roam at night, and prey much on birds and small quadrupeds.