THE Genet ([fig. 112]) is a smaller animal than the civet. He has a long body, short legs, a sharp snout, slender head, and smooth soft hair, of a glossy ash colour, marked with black spots, which are round, and separated on the sides, but so nearly united on the back as to have the appearance of stripes along the body. Upon the neck and back it has a kind of mane, which forms a black streak from the head to the tail, the latter of which is as long as the body, and is marked with seven or eight rings, alternately black and white; the black spots on the neck also appear to form streaks, and it has a white spot under each eye. Under the tail, and in the very same place with the civets, it has a pouch, in which is secreted a kind of perfume, but is much weaker, and its scent soon evaporates. It is somewhat longer than the marten, which it greatly resembles in form, habit, and disposition; and from which it seems chiefly to differ in being more easily tamed. Bellon assures us, that he has seen them in the houses at Constantinople as tame as cats, that they were permitted to run about without doing the least mischief, and that they were called Constantinople cats; Spanish cats; genet cats, &c. though, indeed, they have nothing in common with that animal, except the skill of watching and catching mice.[U] Naturalists pretend that genets inhabit only moist grounds, and reside along the banks of rivers, and that they are never found on mountains or dry grounds. The species is not numerous, or, at least, not much diffused; for there are none of them in any part of Europe, except Spain and Turkey. They seem to require a warm climate to subsist and multiply in, and yet they are not found in India or Africa. The fossane has been called the genet of Madagascar, but that animal is of a different species, as will hereafter be shewn.
[U] It is, perhaps, because they are only found in the Levant and in Spain, that they are designated by their country; for the name of genet is not derived from any of the ancient languages, and is probably only a new appellation taken from some place abounding with them, a custom which is very common in Spain, where a certain race of horses are called genets.
The skin of the genet makes a light and handsome fur, it was formerly fashionable for muffs, and consequently very dear; but the manufacturers having got the art of counterfeiting them, by painting the skins of grey rabbits with black spots, their value is abated, from being no longer esteemed.
SUPPLEMENT.
I formerly stated that genets were not to be found in any parts of Europe, except Spain and Turkey, but since then I have learned that they are common in the southern provinces of France, and that at Poitou they are known by that name even to the peasantry. In April, 1775, the Abbé Roubard sent me a genet that was killed at Livray, in Poitou, which, except some trifling variations in the colour of the hair, was similar to that I have described; and he assured me that the species was also to be found in the neighbouring provinces; and M. Delpeche informed me, in a letter, that it was a constant practice with the peasants of the province of Rouergue to bring dead genets to the merchants in the winter; he added, that they were not very numerous, that they were principally found near Villefranche, and that they burrow in holes like the rabbits, especially in winter.