The genus Fossa is a Viverrine confined to Madagascar. There is but one species, F. daubentoni, the "Fossane." It is distinguished from Viverra by the presence of two bare spots on the under surface of the metatarsus in the hind-limb, and by the absence of a scent pouch. The animal is not much spotted and striped, but the striping in the young is much more marked.
Of the genus Paradoxurus there are some ten or a dozen species, belonging entirely to the Oriental region. The teeth are as in Viverra, but occasionally the molars are reduced to one. The pupils are vertical. The tail though long is not prehensile, "but the animal appears to have the power of coiling it to some extent, and in caged specimens the coiled condition not unfrequently becomes confirmed and permanent" (Blanford). This fact accounts for the name Paradoxurus; for a prehensile tail is hardly to be expected in an animal of the zoological position of the Palm Civets, and yet its occasional twisting led originally to the view that it was so. The genus has scent glands. The dentition is I 3/3 C 1/1 Pm 4/4 M 2/2. P. niger, the Indian Palm Civet, is, like other species, not often to be seen in a wild condition. It is arboreal, and, like other members of the genus, feeds upon a mixed diet, consisting of all kinds of small Vertebrata and insects, varied by fruit. Another species, P. grayi, is so distinctly vegetarian in its habits that it makes considerable havoc in pine-apple beds in the Andaman Islands.
Arctogale is another Oriental genus with very small teeth, those of the molar series being hardly in contact. The soles of the feet are more naked than in the last genus, and the scent glands, if present, appear to be small and ill developed. It has also a long tail, and is arboreal in way of life. There is "nothing particular recorded" as to its habits. The species are A. leucotis and A. stigmatica.
Fig. 201.—Hardwicke's Civet Cat. Hemigale hardwicki. × 1⁄5. (From Nature.)
Closely allied to both the last genera is Hemigale, also an Oriental genus. It is to be distinguished from Paradoxurus by having the soles of the feet much less naked, though they are more so than in Viverra or Prionodon. The coloration of the species, H. hardwicki (a Malayan animal), is very peculiar. The body is banded with five or six broad transverse stripes, and the basal portion of the tail is also ringed, an uncommon feature in the group. A second species of this genus is H. hosei, from Borneo. It is blackish in colour, but is not a melanic variety of the last.
Nandinia appears never to possess a caecum.[[270]] It is also peculiar among Carnivora in the non-ossification of the hinder
part of the bulla. It is an African genus, containing two species which are spotted. The tail is ringed.
Cynogale is at any rate a partially aquatic, short-tailed, web-footed, reddish brown-coloured Civet, which lives upon fish and Crustacea, and inhabits the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, and Borneo. It has long "moustaches," and is said to have a head bearing a singular resemblance to the head of the Insectivorous "Otter" Potamogale. The metatarsus is bald, and the pollex and hallux are very well developed.