672 JOURNAL, BOMB A Y NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XVIII. 



powerful animals, and extremely destructive to game, so much so that the 

 Neilgherry Game Preservation Society used to give a reward of Rs. 2 for every 

 skin presented at the Cutcherry. I have often seen them prowling about in 

 couples both near Ootacamund and also in Wynaad. In the latter district are 

 numerous swamps and rice fields set amid low wooded hills. In the early 

 mornings I used often to see red mongooses in these swamps, where they 

 doubtless were hunting for snakes and frogs. 



These large mongooses have extraordinary tough skins, while their hair is 

 very wiry, consequently they are almost proof against dog bite. One I had 

 wounded near Wellington was worried by three big dogs I had with me, yet 

 when I removed the skin I found that it had been nowhere perforated by 

 the numerous bites. These same dogs would eat almost any kind of meat ; so 

 one day I tried them with red mongoose stewed. None of them, hungry as 

 they were, would touch it. The animal has a somewhat foxy odour, differing 

 in this respect entirely from the smaller grey species, which have no smell. 



In the United Provinces I used often to see very small mongooses with 

 closer, shorter fur than II. mungo. These were no doubt H. auropunctalus 

 I particularly remember watching two of these little fellows hunting along the 

 edge of some aloe bushes close to the P.W.D. Bungalow at Khara Nuddee, 

 eleven miles from Agra. I sat looking at them for a long time, and noticed 

 that in all their ways they were very similar to the common mongoose. 



Favourite haunts of the mongoose are the maze-like interiors of white ants' 

 nests. Even long after the outside hillocks have crumbled away and fallen, a 

 network of underground passages remains, where not only mongooses but jungle 

 cats and other small mammals find safe retreat. I have seen mongooses both 

 in Ceylon and Burma which to the ordinary observer's eye looked similar in 

 size and colouring to the common Indian species. I always disliked shooting 

 them, and this prevented the collection of any exact notes regarding local 

 species or varieties. 



Mongooses unfortunately kill for the sake of killing, so that their destructive- 

 ness is by no means limited by their appetite. I have known of one getting 

 into a quail pit and killing an enormous number of the little birds. 



When in Agra I had a large cage of canaries. A mongoose came into the 

 house at ten in the morning and killed one of them. My Irish terrier was not 

 far off, and retribution quickly followed. The same dog killed another mon- 

 goose in the Fort at Delhi ; this one, too, boldly entered the house in broad 

 daylight. 



Tame mongooses will chase and kill rats just like terriers. They attack large 

 long-legged birds like fowls by first seizing the foot and then rapidly climbing 

 up and biting the throat. I have several times seen bandicoots turned into an 

 empty room with mongooses, and the latter always declined the encounter. 

 The big rat-like bandicoots of Madras sometime reach 3 lb. in weight ; they put 

 up their long hackles when cornered and grunt ; even dogs are occasionally shy 

 of tackling them. 



