“This prettily-marked Wild Cat (see previous page) has been found in the Sikkim Himalayas, in the hilly regions of Assam, Burmah, and Malaysia, extending into the islands of Java, at all events.” The head and body together are from eighteen and a half to twenty-three inches long, the tail fourteen to fifteen and a half inches. The ground-colour of its hide is of a dingy tawny, “occasionally yellowish-grey, the body with numerous elongate wavy, black spots, somewhat clouded or marbled.” The tail is spotted and tipped with black, and the belly is yellowish-white. THE VIVERRINE CAT.[28] “This large Tiger-Cat,” says Mr. Jerdon, “is found throughout Bengal, up to the first of the South-eastern Himalayas, extending into Burma, China, and Malaysia. I have not heard of its occurrence in Central India, nor in the Carnatic; but it is tolerably common in Travancore and Ceylon, extending up the Malabar coast as far as Mangalore. I have had one killed close to my house at Tellicherry. In Bengal it inhabits low, watery situations chiefly, and I have often got it upon the edge of swampy thickets in Purneah. It is said to be common in the Terai and marshy regions at the foot of the Himalayas, but apparently not extending further west than Nepaul. Buchanan Hamilton remarks, ‘In the neighbourhood of Calcutta it would seem to be common. It frequents reeds near water; and, besides fish, preys upon _Ampullinæ_, _Unios_ (shell-fish), and various birds. It is a furious untamable creature, remarkably beautiful, but has a very disagreeable smell.’ On this Mr. Blyth observes, ‘I have not remarked the latter, though I have had several big toms quite tame, and even found this to be a particularly tamable species. A newly-caught male killed a tame young Leopardess of mine about double his size.’ The Rev. Mr. Baker, writing of its habits in Malabar, says that it often kills Pariah Dogs; and that he has known instances of slave children (infants) being taken from their huts by this Cat; also young calves.” [Illustration: SKULL OF VIVERRINE CAT. _a._ The bony bar formed by the union of the frontal and jugal bones which complete the orbit behind.] Notwithstanding its ferocity this is by no means a large animal, being only thirty to forty-four inches long, without the tail, which is ten and a half to twelve and a half inches in length. “The ears are rather small and blunt; the pupil circular; the fur coarse and without any gloss; the limbs short and very strong.” The snout is narrow, and drawn out like that of a Civet, hence the name _Viverrina_. The colour is grey, lighter beneath, and banded and spotted with black. There is a very noticeable peculiarity in the skull, from the fact that the orbit, or bony cavity in which the eye is lodged, is completed behind by bone, a character quite exceptional among Cats, and indeed among, Carnivora generally.