G. GENERAL NATURAL HISTORY AND ZOOLOGY. 185 



die empire, while figures of it are entirely wanting on the 

 monuments of these two great periods of Egyptian culture. 

 At that time, however, the pig, in its wild state, must "have 

 been abundant in the marshes of Lower Egypt, where it still 

 occurs, and supplies food to many of the Mussulman fellahs, 

 in spite of the prohibitory precepts of the Koran. The lack 

 of figures of the wild boar in the ancient Egyptian monu- 

 ments is perhaps to be explained by the idea of absolute 

 impurity which the Egyptian religion attached to the wild 

 and domestic pig preventing them from considering it as 

 either game to be pursued or flesh to-be eaten. But at a 

 later period of Egyptian culture the animal makes its appear- 

 ance in the monuments of the country, although not prior to 

 the time of the eighteenth dynasty, during which drawings 

 of pigs were represented upon the rural scenes, and painted 

 upon the walls of the tombs. 6 J5, Dec. 12, 849 ; Dec. 19, 952. 



RATS IX THE LACCADIVE ISLANDS. 



Our readers may be perhaps aware of the efforts made in 

 the French West Indies to exterminate or reduce the num- 

 bers of poisonous serpents abounding in those islands, prin- 

 cipally by the introduction of the mungoose, and by allowing 

 the common hog to run wild. A similar attempt at antag- 

 onizing an inconvenient development of animal life, in the 

 form of droves of rats, has lately taken place in the Laccadive 

 Islands, a group situated in latitude 12 north and longitude 

 2 east. These are coral islands, in which the rats were not 

 indigenous, but were introduced by their escaping from cer- 

 tain vessels wrecked on the shores. They have now multi- 

 plied to an enormous extent, and have become most incon- 

 venient pests. On one of the islands, where a few years ago 

 thirty or forty thousand eggs of gulls could be gathered in 

 a few hours, the birds have been entirely exterminated or 

 driven away by their four-footed enemies. 



The use of dogs being inadmissible on account of the re- 

 ligious prejudices of the native inhabitants, the experiment 

 was made of transporting fifty mungoose, which were placed 

 on some of the islands, and fifty East Indian snakes, which 

 were introduced on others, the two not being brought to- 

 gether on account of their mutual antipathy. It is expected 

 that both will multiply in the course of a few years so as to 



