536 



CARNIVORA 



snakes. H. ichneumon was a sacred animal to the ancient 

 Egyptians. They vary considerably in appearance, some, as H. 

 galera and H. urva (Fig. 240), are larger and heavier, with stouter 

 body, longer limbs, and stronger teeth. The common Indian 

 Mungoose (II. mungo) is considerably smaller than the Egyptian 

 form ; its fur is of a pale gray colour, the hairs being largely 

 white ringed, while the cheeks and throat are more or less reddish. 

 Like the Egyptian species, it is frequently domesticated, and put 

 to a similar use. It is especially serviceable in India as a serpent- 

 killer, destroying not only the eggs and young of these creatures, 

 but attacking without hesitation and killing the most venomous 



Fig. 240.— The Crab-eating Mungoose (Herpestes urva). From Blanford, Mammalia of 



British India, p. 130. 



adult snakes. The fact that it invariably survives those en- 

 counters has led to the belief that it either enjoys immunity from 

 the effects of snake -poison, or that after being bitten it has 

 recourse, as the natives maintain, to the root of a plant as an 

 antidote. Neither of these suppositions has stood the test of 

 scientific examination, for it has been found that when actually 

 bitten it falls a victim to the poison as rapidly as other mammals, 

 while there is no trustworthy evidence of its seeking a vegetable 

 antidote. The truth seems to be that the Mungoose, by its 

 exceeding agility and quickness of eye, avoids the fangs of the 

 snake while fixing its own teeth in the back of the reptile's neck. 

 One large species, believed to be from Africa, recently described as 

 H. grandis, is remarkable for the extreme complexity of the cusps 

 on the molars, and also for the absence of an entepicondylar 

 foramen to the humerus ; the latter feature also occurring in the 

 allied //. albicaudatus. The Oriental H. urva (Fig. 246) is stated to 

 be somewhat aquatic in habits, and to feed on frogs and crabs. 



