longitudinal series, diminishing in size on the dorsal
ridge, which has an interrupted dark line, and extending outside the
limbs to the digits; below entirely unspotted; tail with eight or
nine nearly perfect and equal rings" (_Jerdon_). "Skull elongate;
nose rather short, compressed; brain-case narrow in front, swollen
over the ears, and contracted and produced behind; orbits, not
defined behind, confluent with the temporal cavity; zygomatic arch
slender; palate contracted behind" (_Gray_). Jerdon's description
is a very good one, but it must not be taken as an accurate one, spot
for spot, for the animal varies somewhat in colour. Take, for
instance, a description from Gray: "Pale _whitish grey_; back of neck
and shoulders with _three_ streaks diverging from the vertebral
line; back with two series of large square spots; the shoulders,
sides, and legs with round black spots; an elongated spot on the
middle of the front part of the back, between the square spots on
the sides of the body."

SIZE.--Head and body, 16 inches; tail, 14 inches; height, 6 inches.

Our Indian animal is closely allied to the Malayan species, which
was first described as _Felis_ and afterwards _Prionodon gracilis_.
It is mentioned in the English translation of Cuvier as the delundung,
"a rare Javanese animal, of which there is only one species," but
another was subsequently found by Mr. Hodgson in Nepal, and now a
third has been discovered in Tenasserim. They are beautiful little
creatures, with all the agility of cats, climbing and springing from
branch to branch in pursuit of small mammals and birds, and I have
no doubt it is a great enemy of the _Tupaiae_ and squirrels. It breeds
in the hollows of trees. It is capable of being tamed, and according
to several authors becomes very gentle and fond of being noticed.

Hodgson says it never utters any kind of sound. He fed his on raw
meat.

NO. 226. PRIONODON MACULOSUS.
_The Spotted Linsang_.

HABITAT.--Tenasserim.

[Illustration: _Prionodon maculosus_.]

DESCRIPTION.--"Upper part brownish-black, broken up by
greyish-white bands, lower parts white; tail brownish-black, with
seven white rings; tips whitish; two broad black bands run down each
side of the upper part of the neck, between them is a narrow
greyish-white band with a faint mesial dark streak somewhat
interrupted, and passing into two bands of elongate spots between
the shoulders. The two broad dark bands pass into the dark pat