ring-tailed cat

plural ring-tailed cats · alternative ringtailed cat

1. Synonym of ringtail, species Bassariscus astutus

   They bear in the United States the name of civet, Mexican, or ring-tailed cats, and are frequently tamed in Mexico and California; in the latter country they are great pets of the miners.

   [1857, Reports of Explorations and Surveys to Ascertain the Most Practicable and Economical Route for a Railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean, Made Under the Direction of the Secretary of War in 1853–6, According to Acts of Congress of March 3, 1853, May 31, 1854, and August 5, 1854, volume 8, page 147

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   The Cacomixle, Civet, or ring-tailed Cat, as it is indifferently called by the miners of the districts where it is found, is a puzzling little creature, which was, until quite recently, placed in the Civet family […]

   1892, P[eter] Martin Duncan, editor, Cassell's Natural History, volume 2, page 180

   Her father and her mother were the grasshopper and the ring-tailed cat. They were the best father and mother left after my father and mother. The coyote is very wise; the moon is very old, but who ever heard much of anything of credit to the grasshopper and the ring-tailed cat? The Nishinam are always right. The mother of all women had to be a cat, a little, wizened, sad-faced, shrewd, ring-tailed cat.

   1915 June, Jack London, “The Little Lady of the Big House”, in Cosmopolitan, volume 59, number 1, page 49

   The ringtailed cat is an excellent climber and hunts in trees for small birds. Is it really a cat? No! The ringtailed cat is part of the raccoon family. Like the red fox, it hunts alone at night.

   2015, Sarah Walker, Anna Lofthouse, Mammals, Penguin Random House

   Synonyms: ringtail, species Bassariscus astutus