CIVETS, a family of small carnivorous mammals, the Viverridre, related to both the hyenas and the cats. Their alliance to the former appears when the fossil history of the family is traced back to the early Tertiary, where the ancestry of both converges. The comparatively coarse hair and erectile mane possessed by some species, and dentition, are still hyena-like; while the slender, elongated form, long tail and especially the fact that the claws are semi-retractile, exhibit the inborn likeness to the cats. The civets vary from two to three feet in length, and most of the species are strongly marked in black and white stripes and spots, sometimes prettily disposed. They are distributed throughout the warmer parts of the Old World, abounding in Africa and the Malayan Islands, but are absent from the Australian region. The family is divisible into two groups, one of which includes the typical civets; the African genets, one species of which also inhabits Spain and Italy; the linsangs and other Oriental spotted forms and the para doxures. The second group includes the mun goos and other ichneumons, suricates and the like. These various forms will be found de
scribed elsewhere under their separate names.
Civets feed upon smaller mammals, birds' eggs, lizards and snakes, and are considered beneficial because of their appetite for crocodile eggs, which they devour in great quantities along the Nile. They are characterized by, and chiefly valued for, an odorous, fatty sub stance, contained in a pouch connected with the sexual organs, in both sexes. This sub stance is used for compounding perfumes, and is ready for use after it has been drained, washed and dried. It is called °civet? Shakes peare refers to it as "of a baser birth than tar, the very uncleanly flux of a cat.° A dram is obtained at a time from each animal, from which it is taken at intervals of a few days. Many thousand ounces are annually imported into London. Pure civet is valued at about $10 an ounce. The American "civet-cat' is the cacomistle (q.v.), which is not a true civet, but nearly related to the raccoons.