Natural History of the Mammalia of India and Ceylon Part 39

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Felis jubata_.]

DESCRIPTION.--A tall, slim animal, with body much drawn in at the flanks like a greyhound; purely cat-like head with short round ears; long tail, much compressed at the end; in colour a bright rufous fawn, more or less deep, sometimes what Blyth calls a bright _nankeen_, dotted with numerous small black spots which are single, and not in rosettes, as in the pards; a black streak from the corner of the eye down the face; ears black at base externally, the rest whitish; the tail spotted, but having three or four black rings at the tip: the extreme tip is always white; the hair of the belly is lengthened with a s.h.a.ggy fringe-like appearance; the fur generally is coa.r.s.e; the nozzle is black, whereas in the tiger it is pink, and in a pard dusky pink; the pupils of the eye contract circularly.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Skull of _Felis jubata_.]

SIZE.--Head and body, about 4-1/2 feet; tail, 2-1/2; height, 2-1/2 to 2-3/4 feet.

This animal is one of the most interesting of all the felines, both as regards its appearance, disposition, habits, and the uses to which it can be put. Throughout India it is in much request as a necessary appanage to regal state; and, therefore, a cla.s.s of men devote themselves to the trapping of this creature which, when trained, finds a ready sale at the courts of Indian n.o.bles. For this purpose the adult animal is always caught, it being considered by the chita-catchers that a young leopard would never turn out well for the purposes of the chase. A similar idea prevails amongst the falconers of Hindustan regarding nestlings, and it is surprising how soon a large adult and apparently savage animal can be reduced to a state of comparative slavery and obedient to the orders of his keepers.

Dr. Jerdon describes one which he brought up from its earliest infancy; his bungalow was next to the one I inhabited for a time at Kampti, and consequently I saw a good deal of Billy, as the leopard was named. At my first interview I found him in the stables amongst the dogs and horses, and, as I sat down on his charpoy, he jumped up alongside of me, and laid down to be scratched, playing and purring and licking my hands with a very rough tongue. He sometimes used to go out with his master, and was gradually getting into the way of running down antelope, when Dr. Jerdon was ordered off on field service.

The mode of hunting with the chita is so well known, and has been so frequently described, that I think I need not attempt a description. Its habits in a state of nature, and the mode of capture, are more to the purport of this work. It is said by shikarees to feed only once every third day, when, after gorging itself, it retires to its den for the other two. On the morning of the third day he visits some particular tree, which the animals of his species in the neighbourhood are in the habit of frequenting. Such trees are easily to be recognised by the scoring of the bark on which he whets his claws. Here, after having relieved himself in various ways and played about with such of his comrades as may be there, they go off on a hunting expedition.

There is an interesting letter from "Deccanee Bear" in _The Asian_ of the 22nd of July, 1880, giving a description of the snaring of some of these animals, and the remarks he makes about their rendezvous at a particular tree, corroborates what has been a.s.serted by other writers. He says: "Arrived at the spot the bullocks were soon relieved of their burden, and then work commenced. The nooses were of the same kind as those used for snaring antelope, made from the dried sinews of the antelope. These were pegged down in all directions, and at all angles, to a distance of 25 to 30 feet from the tree. The carts and bullocks were sent off into a road about a mile away. An ambush was made of bushes and branches some fifty or sixty yards away, and here, when the time came, I and three Vardis ensconced ourselves. I have sat near some dirty fellows in my life, but the stench of those three men baffles description; you could cut it with a knife. I could not smoke, so had to put up with the several smells until I was nearly sick. At last the sun commenced to sink, and the men who were looking round in all directions, suddenly pointed in the direction of the north. Sure enough there were four cheetahs skying away and playing together about 400 yards off; they came closer and closer, when they stopped about 100 yards off, looking about as if they suspected danger. However, they became rea.s.sured, and all raced away as hard as they could in the direction of the tree. Two were large and the other two smaller; the larger had the best of the race, and were entangled by all four feet before they knew where they were. The Vardis made a rush. I did the same, but in a second was flat on the ground, having caught my feet in the nooses. One of the men came and released me from my undignified position, and I could then see how the cheetahs were secured. A country blanket was thrown over the heads of the animal, and the two fore or hind legs tied together. The carts had come up by this time; a leather hood was subst.i.tuted for the blanket--a rather ticklish operation, during which one man was badly bitten in the hand. The cheetahs know how to use their teeth and claws. Having been securely fastened on the carts, and the nooses collected, we started for camp, which we reached about eight in the evening. I was much pleased with what I had seen and learnt, but it took me a long time to get the smell of the Vardis out of my head. The next morning I went to see the cheetahs and found that they had been tied spread-eagle fashion on the carts, and with their hoods firmly tied. They were a pair, and in all probability the parents of the two smaller ones. Women and children are told off to sit all day long close to the animals, and keep up a conversation, so that they should get accustomed to the human voice. The female was snarling a good deal, the male being much quieter; they go through various gradations of education, and I was told they would be ready to be unhooded and worked in about six months' time. The man who had his hand bitten was suffering from considerable inflammation. I had him attended to, and, after rewarding them with 'baksheesh,' I let them proceed on their way rejoicing."

Chita kittens are very pretty little things, quite grey, without any spots whatever, but they can always be recognised by the black stripe down the nose, and on cutting off a little bit of the soft hair I noticed that the spots were quite distinct in the under fur. I have not seen this fact alluded to by others. As a rule the young of all cats, even the large one-coloured species, such as the lion and puma, are spotted, but the hunting leopard is externally an exception, although the spots are there lying hid. I had several of them at Seonee.

HYAENIDAE--THE HYAENAS.

The second family of the AEluroidea contains only one genus, the _Hyaena_, which, though somewhat resembling the dog in outward appearance, connects the cat with the civet. The differences between the _Felidae_ and the _Viverridae_, setting aside minor details, are in the teeth, and the possession by the latter of a caudal pouch.

My readers are now familiar with the simple cutting form of the feline teeth, which are thirty in number. The civets have no less than forty, and the grinders, instead of having cutting scissor-like edges, are cuspidate, or crowned with tubercles. Now the hyaena comes in as an intermediate form. He has four more premolars than the typical cat, and the large grinding teeth are conical, blunt and very powerful, the base of the cone being belted by a strong ridge, and the general structure is one adapted for crushing rather than cutting. Professor Owen relates that an eminent engineer, to whom he showed a hyaena's jaw, remarked that the strong conical tooth, with its basal ridge, was a perfect model of a hammer for breaking stones.

Of course, such a formation would be useless without a commensurate motive power, and we may, therefore, look to the skull for certain signs of the enormous development of muscles, which this animal possesses. In shape it somewhat resembles the cat's skull, though not so short, nor yet so long as that of the civet or dog. The zygomatic arches are greatly developed, also the bony ridges for the attachment of the muscles, especially the sagittal or great longitudinal crest on the top of the head, which is in comparison far larger than that of even the tiger, and to which are attached the enormous muscles of the cheek working the powerful jaws, which are capable of crushing the thigh-bone of a bullock. Captain Baldwin, in his book, says he remembers once, when watching over a kill, seeing a hyaena, only some twelve feet below where he sat, snap with a single effort through the rib of a buffalo.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Skull of Hyaena.]

The hyaena also possesses the sub-caudal pouch of the civets, which gave rise amongst the ancients to various conjectures as to the dual character of its s.e.x.

The _bulla tympani_ or bulb of the ear is large as in the cats, but it is not divided into two compartments by a bony part.i.tion (which in the dogs is reduced to a low wall), but the paroccipital process or bony clamp on the external posterior surface is closely applied to the bulb as in the cats, and not separated by a groove as in the dogs.

The cervical vertebrae sometimes become anchylosed, from whence, in former times, arose the superst.i.tion that this animal had but one bone in the neck.

In its internal anatomy, digestive as well as generative, the hyaena is nearer to the cat than the dog, but it possesses the _caec.u.m_, or blind gut, which is so large in the canidae, small in the felines, and totally absent in the bears.

The tongue is rough, with a circular collection of retroflected spines. The hind legs are much shorter than the front, and the feet have only four toes with blunt worn claws, not retractile, but like those of the dog.

The hair is coa.r.s.e and bristly, and usually prolonged into a sort of crest or mane along the neck and shoulders, and to a slighter degree down the back; the tail is bushy.

Dental formula: Inc., 3--3/3--3; can., 1--1/1--1; premolars, 4--4/3--3; molars, 1--1/1--1.

There are only three known species of hyaena, of which one, our common Indian animal, belongs to Asia, and two, _H. crocuta_ and _H.

brunnea_, to Africa.

_GENUS HYAENA_

NO. 220. HYAENA STRIATA.

_The Striped Hyaena_ (_Jerdon's No. 118_).

NATIVE NAMES.--_Taras_, _Hundar_, _Jhirak_ (in Hurriana); _Lakhar-baghar_, _Lokra-bagh_, Hindi; _Naukra-bagh_, Bengali; _Rerha_ in Central India; _Kirba_ and _Kat-Kirba_, Canarese; _Korna-gandu_, Telegu.

HABITAT.--All over India; but as far as I can gather not in Burmah nor in Ceylon; it is not mentioned in Blyth's and Kellaart's catalogues. It is also found in Northern Africa and throughout Asia Minor and Persia; it is common in Palestine.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Hyaena striata_.]

DESCRIPTION.--Pale yellowish-grey, with transverse tawny or blackish bands which encircle the body, and extend downwards on to the legs. The neck and back are maned.

SIZE.--Head and body, 3-1/2 feet; tail, about 1-1/2 feet.

This repulsive and cowardly creature is yet a useful beast in its way. Living almost exclusively on carrion, it is an excellent scavenger. Most wild animals are too active for it, but it feeds on the remains left by the larger felines, and such creatures as die of disease, and can, on a pinch, starve for a considerable time. The African spotted hyaena is said to commit great havoc in the sheep-fold. The Indian one is very destructive to dogs, and constantly carries off pariahs from the outskirts of villages. The natives declare that the hyaena tempts the dogs out by its unearthly cries, and then falls upon them. Dr. Jerdon relates a story of a small dog belonging to an officer of the 33rd M. N. I. (the regiment he was with when I first knew him) being carried off by a hyaena whose den was known. Some of the sepoys went after it, entered the cave, killed the hyaena, and recovered the dog alive, and with but little damage done to it.

The hyaena is of a timorous nature, seldom, if ever, showing fight.

Two of them nearly ran over me once as I was squatting on a deer run waiting for sambar, which were being beaten out of a hill. I flung my hat in the face of the leading one, on which both turned tail and fled. The Arabs have a proverb, "As cowardly as a hyaena."

The _Cryptoprocta ferox_ is not an inhabitant of India, being found only in the interior of Madagascar. The genus contains only one species, a most savage little animal; it is the most perfect link between the cats and the civets, having retractile claws, one more premolar in each jaw; five toes, and semi-plantigrade feet. It should properly come before the hyaenas, to which the next in order is the South African Aard-wolf (_Proteles Lalandii_), which forms the connection between the hyaena and the civet, though more resembling the former. It is placed in a family by itself, which contains but one genus and species. It has the sloping back of the hyaena, the hind legs being lower than the fore, and it might almost, from its shape and colouring, be taken for that animal when young. The skull however is prolonged, and the teeth are civet-like. It is nocturnal and gregarious, several living in the same burrow. Like the hyaena it lives on carrion. It has a fifth toe on the fore feet.

VIVERRIDAE--THE CIVET FAMILY.

The Civets are confined to the Old World; they are mostly animals with long bodies, sharp muzzle, short legs, long tapering tail and coa.r.s.e fur; they are semi-plantigrade, walking on their toes, but keeping the wrist and ankle nearer to the ground than do the cats; the claws are only partially retractile; the skull is longer in the snout than that of felines, and, altogether narrower, the zygomatic arches not being so broad, the base of the skull is much the same, and the _bulla tympani_ shews little difference; the teeth, however, are decidedly different. There are four premolars and two molars on each side of each jaw, which, with the normal number of canines and incisors, give forty teeth in all; the canines are moderate in size, and sharp; the premolars conical, and the molars cuspidate, which gives them a grinding surface instead of the trenchant character of the cats; the tongue is rough, the papillae being directed backwards; the pupils are circular. The most striking characteristics of the family is, however, the sub-caudal pouch, which in most produces an odorous substance, and in the typical civet the perfume of that name.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Dent.i.tion of Civet.]

Dental formula: inc., 3--3/3--3; can., 1--1/1--1; premolars, 4--4/3--3; molars, 2--2/3--3.

The family contains the Civet, Genette, Linsang, Suricate, Binturong and Mongoose, though this last is separated by Jerdon, who follows Blyth.

_GENUS VIVERRA_.

a.n.a.l pouch large, and divided into two sacs secreting the _civet_ perfume of commerce; pupil vertical and oblong; fur spotted and coa.r.s.e, lengthened into an erectile mane on the back; diet mixed carnivorous and vegetivorous.

NO. 221. VIVERRA ZIBETHA.

_The Large Civet Cat_ (_Jerdon's No. 119_).

NATIVE NAMES.--_Katas_, Hindi; _Mach-bhondar_, Bengali, also _Bagdos_ and _Pudo-gaula_ in some parts; _Bhran_ in the Nepal Terai; _Nit-biralu_, Nepalese; _Kung_, Bhotia; _Saphiong_, Lepcha, (_Jerdon_); _Khyoung-myen_, Aracanese.

HABITAT.--According to Jerdon this species inhabits Bengal, extending northwards in Nepal and Sikhim, and into Cuttack, Orissa, and Central India on the south, but is replaced in Malabar by the next species; it is also found in a.s.sam and Burmah, but apparently not in Ceylon, where _V. Malaccensis_ represents the family.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Viverra zibetha_.]

DESCRIPTION.--h.o.a.ry or yellowish grey, generally spotted and striped with black; some specimens are marked with wavy bands, others are almost free from marks; throat white, with a transverse black band, another on each side of the neck; under-parts white; tail with six black rings; limbs dark.

SIZE.--Head and body, 33 to 36 inches; tail 13 to 20.

"This animal frequents brushwood and gra.s.s, and the th.o.r.n.y scrub that usually covers the bunds of tanks. It is very carnivorous and destructive to poultry, game, &c., but will also, it is said, eat fish, crabs and insects. It breeds in May and June, and has usually four or five young. Hounds, and indeed all dogs, are greatly excited by the scent of this civet, and will leave any other scent for it.