The binturong is placed with the civets. It has a prehensile tail like the kinkajou (see page 127).]
We have now traced the long line of the Carnivora from the lordly Lion, the slayer of man and his flocks and herds, and the Tiger, equally formidable and no less specially developed for a life of rapine on a great scale, to creatures as small and insignificant as the Meerkat, which is at least as much an insect-feeder as a devourer of flesh, and the Ichneumons and Civets. The highest form of specialisation in the group is the delicate mechanism by which the chief weapons of offence, the claws, are enabled to keep their razor edge by being drawn up into sheaths when the animal walks, but can be instantly thrust out at pleasure, rigid and sharp as sword-blades. The gradual process by which this equipment deteriorates in the Civets and disappears in the Mongoose should be noted. There are many other carnivora, but none so formidable as those possessing the retractile claws. Thus the Bears, though often larger in bulk than the Lion, are far inferior in the power of inflicting violent injury. At the same time such delicate mechanism is clearly not necessary for the well-being of a species. The members of the Weasel Tribe are quite as well able to take care of themselves as the small cats, though they have non-retractile and not very formidable claws.
[Illustration: _Photo by L. Medland, F.Z.S._] [_North Finchley._
The Indian mongoose is the great enemy of snakes. Another species eats the eggs of the crocodile.]
Such a very abnormal animal as the BINTURONG--of which we are able to give an excellent photograph--is doubtless rightly assigned to the place in which modern science has placed it. But it will be found that there are several very anomalous forms quite as detached from any general type as is the binturong. Nature does not make species on any strictly graduated scale. Many of these nondescript animals are so unlike any other group or family that they seem almost freaks of nature. The binturong is certainly one of these.
The next group with which we deal is that of the Hyænas. In these the equipment for catching living prey is very weak. Speed and pursuit are not their _métier_, but the eating of dead and decaying animal matter, and the consumption of bones. Hence the jaws and teeth are highly developed, while the rest of the body is degenerate.