Viverra Civetta. Linn.

The group of animals to which we have next to turn our attention is perhaps the most puzzling, and certainly the least understood, among the true Carnivora; hence there exists no little difficulty in defining its limits and distinguishing the species which compose it. Under the generic¹ name of Viverra, Linn?us comprehended a series, or, to speak more properly, a congeries, of quadrupeds, differing from each other so remarkably² in form, in structure, and in habits, as to render it absolutely impossible to find characters by which they might be circumscribed³ and isolated⁴ from their fellows. His definition of the genus therefore, although purposely[100] expressed in terms the most vague and indistinct, neither excludes such animals as from their obvious affinities⁵ he could not refrain from referring to other groups, nor includes full one half of the species which he has arranged beneath it. The Ichneumon of the Nile, the Suricate of the Cape⁶, the Coati of South America, the Stinking⁷ Weasels of the North, the Civet of Barbary, the Genette of the East, the Ratel of South Africa, and others equally distant in affinity⁸, were sweepingly⁹ compelled into this ample receptacle, which was converted into a genuine “refuge for the houseless,” in which every carnivorous quadruped, known, unknown, or imperfectly known, that appeared to be without a place elsewhere, was charitably afforded a temporary asylum¹¹.

In this arrangement, which brought animals truly digitigrade, with retractile claws, tongues covered with sharp papill?,

分享到：