86 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



posited, should be retained, devoted to worship, with special masses 

 to be said at stated times, and the splendid collections of the chateau 

 should together be called the Conde Museum. In 1889 the Govern- 

 ment authorized the duke to return to France. He refused to accept 

 the permission as a matter of favor, but only as one of right. He 

 returned, however, and took his seat in the academy in May of that 

 year. — Translated for the Popular Science Monthly from articles 

 in La Nature. 



THE MONGOOSE IN JAMAICA. 



By C. W. WILLIS, 



MEMT3EK OF THE INSTITUTE OF JAMAICA. 



ABOUT fifteen or twenty years ago the mongoose (Herpestes 

 griseus) was imported from India by the colonial govern- 

 ment and introduced into the island of Jamaica, in the West Indies, 

 for the ostensible purpose of destroying the large, gray, white-bellied 

 rat which played havoc with the growing cane on the sugar plan- 

 tations. 



The mongoose belongs to the Viverrido?, or civet-cat family, 

 which is closely allied to the Felidce, one of the most widely diversi- 

 fied among the carnivora. But the mongoose differs materially from 

 the civet cats, for it belongs properly to the subfamily Herpestinae, or 

 ichneumons, having toes slender and straight, and separate from one 

 another; the scent glands, so highly developed in the civet cat, being 

 either small or entirely absent. Most of the ichneumons are natives 

 of Africa, but several are Indian, and one form (H. ichneumon) ex- 

 tends to southern Spain. 



H. griseus is the true mongoose of India, and is the animal im- 

 ported into Jamaica. In its native habitat it devours snakes, rats, 

 lizards, and other creatures not in favor with humanity. Its color 

 is gray, darker on the head and legs; its feet are blackish, and the end 

 of the tail is tipped with black. Beneath the longer gray- or white- 

 ringed hairs there is a fine, short, reddish under fur. The body of 

 the full-grown animal is about twenty-one inches in length, and the 

 tail eighteen inches. 



Like Pharaoh's rat in Egypt, to which it is allied, the mongoose 

 is highly valued in India, and is often kept tame about the houses for 

 the services that it renders in destroying snakes and other plagues. 

 It is especially famous for its prowess in destroying the deadly cobra, 

 a feat performed by force of its superior boldness and activity. 



That the little animal has fairly achieved the object for which 

 it was imported can not be gainsaid, but that it would ever become 



