Zool. [a. F. vansire, formed by Buffon (1765), from the Malagasy name, given by him as vohang- or voangshira (otherwise recorded as vontsira).] The marsh-ichneumon (Herpestes galera) of South Africa.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist., III. ix. 362. To the ferret kind we may add an animal which Mr. Buffon calls the Vansire, the skin of which was sent him stuffed, from Madagascar.
1785. Smellie, trans. Buffon’s Nat. Hist. (1791), VII. 222. The vansire … is a native of Madagascar and the interior parts of Africa.
1831. Proc. Zool. Soc., April, 57. M. Goudot has brought a small carnivorous animal, which he states to be the true vansire.
