MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 673 



The tough skin aud wiry hair which I have alluded to in the case of the red 

 mongoose are in a minor degree characteristic of the smaller species also, and no 

 doubt often save them in their encounters with poisonous snakes. I have seen 

 a 4ft. cobra strike a mongoose in the side and draw blood with its fangs. The 

 mongoose suffered no ill effects, but very possibly the cobra may have previously 

 exhausted its poison gland. 



Mother mongooses take their young ones out and teach them to hunt. I 



have several times had opportunities of watching these family parties near 



Madras, where mongooses are plentiful. I do not know whether any attempt 



has been made to breed mongooses in England ; the imported ones appear to 



stand the climate fairly well. I have once seen the common mongoose at 



Wellington (near Coonoor), but never as high as Ootacamund. A small 



mongoose is found in Kashmir 5000 ft. above the sea. This is probably 



H. auropunctatus , to which reference has been already made. 



Fleur-de-Lys. 



{From " The Field," 22nd February 1908.) 

 [The above note and the following one are inserted because of the lack of information 

 on the habits of these common animals. Our Society requires specimens of the skins of 

 all Mongooses and Hares. — Eds.] 



No. IV.— INDIAN HARES. 



In most parts of India, where country and climate are suitable, hares are 

 numerous. Districts with a moderate rainfall, and where large tracts of bush 

 jungle alternate with cultivated plains, afford ideal conditions for them; conse- 

 quently in the United Provinces and other parts of Upper India, where such 

 conditions are to be found, hares are extremely plentiful. 



Sportsmen who are quick and proficient with the shot gun can, of course, see 

 no particular fascination in shooting an animal which, when put up, usually 

 goes away at a slow canter and offers the easiest of marks; but it must be 

 remembered that the majority of non-commissioned officers and men of our 

 Indian garrison who devote their leisure time to sport are slow, uncertain shots, 

 and can only afford to expend a limited number of cartridges. Hares, therefore, 

 are much sought after and prized, and as the means of taking so many of our rank 

 and file out of stuffy barracks and steaming bazaars into the free width of the 

 open country these animals deserve a high place in the list of Indian small game. 



The commonest Indian hare is Lepus ruficaudatus , and this species is spread 

 throughout the peninsula from Madras to the Himalayas. It is also found 

 at considerable elevations among the Kumaon Hills, and I have both seen and 

 shot hares of this kind in the vincinity of Bhim Tal, nearly 5000 ft. above the 

 sea. The average weight of ruficaudatus is 51bs. and even in the hills, where 

 feeding is abundant throughout the year, that weight is never much exceeded. 



In the case of Lepus nigricollis, a local race found in the highlands of Southern 

 India and Ceylon, the generous diet of the hills has improved the size, and I 

 found that hares on the Neilgherry plateau averaged quite lib. heavier than 

 those obtained from the low lands of Ceylon. One large specimen which I 

 shot near Wellington, ten miles from Ootacamund, scaled no less than 81bs. 



