894 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[May 1, 1883. 



in Jamaica and Barbados. Jlr. D. Morris, in his recently 

 published pamphlet,* thus describes its results ; — 



" They are now firmly established in the neighbourhood of 

 Kingston and in every parish in the island ; and even in 

 the mountains at elevations from 5,000 ft. to 6,000 ft., with 

 ft minimum temperature of 45 ° Fahr. they are becoming 

 quite common. That they can swim and dive with great 

 facility has often been noticed ; and thus streams and 

 lagoons offer no hindrance to their dispersal. After just ten 

 year's experience with the mungoose in Jamaica, it is an 

 interesting question both for the sugar planter and the 

 naturalist to discuss: what are the practical results of the 

 experiment ? 



" The introduction and complete natm-alisation of an ani- 

 mal possessing .such strong predatory habits, and remark- 

 able powers of reproduction, as the mungoose, must have an 

 important influence on all indigenous and introduced animals 

 capable of bLiug affected by it. As it is well known, the 

 mungoose, although shaped like a weasel, belongs to the 

 civet-cat family (Viverridie) ; and its disposition is as san- 

 guinary as its habits are predatory. Its natural food consists 

 of birds, snakes, lizards, rats, mice, and last, but not least, 

 the eggs of both birds and reptiles. In India the destruction 

 which it often causes amongst poultry is well compensated 

 for by the incessant war which it wages against snakes and 

 vermin. Even the lethal cobra falls a victim to the agility 

 of the mungoose, which, according to eastern tradition, is 

 said to possess an antidote, by means of which it can with- 

 stand the venom of the most deadly reptile. 



" I have been at some pains to learn what the general 

 opinion in the island at the present time is with regard to 

 the influence of the mungoose ; and, at the risk of being 

 deemed prolix, I will give a summary of the information 

 which I have gleaned from persons representing all kinds of 

 industries. 



" In the first place, there can be no doubt that on sugar 

 estates the mungoose has fuUy realized the hopes held 

 out respecting its power as a rat-catcher; and sugar 

 planters all over the island speak in the most unqualified 

 terms of the good it has done in destroying the rapaci- 

 ous 'cane-piece rat,' and reducing the expense of rat- 

 catching in all its phases. 



" On an estate where the mungoose had only been intro- 

 duced in 1878, the attorney speaks of its usefulness as 

 follows: — 'In comparing the expenditure on an estate 

 where I Uved for some years, I find the present yearly 

 expenditure for rat-catching shows £8, as compared with 

 £80 spent in catching and poisoning rats, and rebuilding 

 walls puUed down to catch rats. I take this from aver- 

 ages for five years before the introduction of the mungoose, 

 as compared with last year's expenditm-e. This amount 

 does not include the costs, of poisons, baits and traps, 

 which would average fully £30 a year, making £100, as 

 compared with £8. 



",In comparing the quantity of rat-eaten canes destroyed 

 before the introduction of the mungoose, I take the 

 number of gallons of rum-canes ground during tlie crop 

 preceding the introduction of the mungoose, and com- 

 pare it with the quantity ground last year. This shows 

 14,850 gallons rum-cane ground before 1878, to 7,425 gal- 

 lons ground in 1881, which, compared at the r.ite of seven 

 loads of canes to a sijihon of 450 gallous, shows eleven 

 and a half hogsheads of sugar spoilt before 1878, com- 

 pared with 5i hogsheads spoilt in 1S81— taking twenty 

 loads of good canes to the hog.shead — or a destruction of 

 10 per cent, as compared with 5 per cent, under existing 

 circumstances.' Again: — '.Some of the best cane lands on 

 the estate I have just mentioned had to be thrown out 

 of cultivation for years, owing to the impossibility of sav- 

 ing the canes from rats.' 



" Hence, for sugar estates, the rat question appears, for 

 the present at least, to have been fully solved. With regard 

 to other industries, the question is not so clear, nor perhaps 

 at first sight so satisfactory. For instance, rats, especially 

 the black and brown species, have always caused considerable 

 loss to coconut plantations by altackiig the young nuts on 

 Ihe trees, and destroying them, sometimes in mere wanton- 

 ness, in immense numbers. With the spread of the mun- 

 goose, I am informed that more ras thnu formerly hive 



* Which appears to bean amplificutiou of his letter to the Field, 

 which will be found on pages 206-8 of Vol. U. of the Iropiml Agri- 

 €ulturUt.—'Ei>. 



taken refuge in coconut plantations, apparently driven 

 away from sugar estates by the mungoose, and, as the latter 

 cannot climb, the rats are apparently quite safe. This, I 

 fear, will always be the oa«e, especially with the black rat, 

 which nests in trees and is a splendid climber. It is only 

 in the open, were cultivation is carefully kept up, and the 

 rats have no special shelter or trees to climb, that the mun- 

 e;oo3e is a successful rat-killer. Coconut planters are now, 

 however, protecting their trees when grown up by placing 

 strips of tin around the stem, about six feet from the ground 

 after effectually clearing out the rats and their nests from 

 the trees. Bats, hero called 'rat bats,' probably do quite 

 as much harm in some districts to young coconuts as rats; 

 and to depredations of this kind there would appear to be 

 no remedy. 



"The cultivation of cacao will, no doubt, ultimately benefit, 

 by the Introduction of the mungoose, to a considerable ex- 

 tent. The peasantry have hitherto suBered so severely by 

 the depredations of rats, that this cultivation has never been 

 taken up by them on a large scale. 



" Where large areas are planted with cacao, and where the 

 ground is kept clean and open, the mungoose mnst prove 

 of great service in checking the depredations of rats and 

 the trees being small and low, rats would be unable to make 

 a permanent lodgment in them. 



" Similarly with cofiee, which has hitherto suSered most 

 severely fi:om their depredations. The proportion of ' rat 

 coffee ' on some estates is probably one-twentieth of the 

 whole crop; and it would be larger still if it were all care- 

 fully gathered and cured. The actual damage done to coffee 

 by rats has been estimated as high as £15.000 per annum, 

 and probably this is not fir beyond the mark. 



"In some districts the greater yield of coffee and cacao 

 in recent years has been attributed more to the influenoe 

 of the mungoose than to the increased area under cultiv- 

 ation. Certainly, the large increase of our exports in cacoa 

 during the last five years cannot be accounted for, alone, 

 by the increase area devoted to this culture. 



" Turning now to another phase o£ the subject, viz., 

 the injuries said to be inflicted by the mungnose on poultry 

 and other domestic animals, the general opinion amongst 

 negroes and those who have not suffered severely by the de- 

 predations ol rats, is of a character decidedly unfavourable to 

 the mungoose, 



" It is but natural that an ichneumon should eat eggs and 

 destroy chickens when other supplies fail ; but from my 

 own experience (and I have some one hundred and fifty 

 fowls running freely about the yard) I cannot recall a 

 single insiance in which eggs or chickens have been actu- 

 ally destroyed by the muneoose ; and it is, and has been for 

 some time, very prevalent in the neighbourhood. Many 

 of my oorrespimdents, however, state the fact, and on 

 this account the negroes destroy the mungoose wher- 

 ever they find it. The evil, as yet, is not of a serious 

 character, whatever it may eventually attain, and certainly 

 not greater in most districts than that formerly caused 

 l>y rats before the mungoose became common. At present 

 there would appear to be no diminution in the supply or 

 increase in the price of either poultry or eggs. It is said 

 that the nmngoose will not trouble any fowl-house near which 

 a ddg is kept, and as it is a day w.ilker, its depredations in 

 these respects are likely to be kept withiu comparatively 

 re.isonable limits.'" 



Thus far Mr. Morris, and it mil be allowed that he^has 

 put the caso both for and against the mungoos • very fairly. 

 This is not a matter, however, in which there is but one 

 opinion, for a correspondent writes to one of our dally 

 contemporaries: — "The paople of Austraha are .about to in- 

 troduces the mungoose from India, in order that the pest 

 of r^ibbits may be abated. I only hope the colonists 

 know what they are bringing upon themselves. Some 

 times ago a mungoose came from India in a steamer. He 

 was a lively little urchin of about the size of a pole-cat- 

 His coat w.ts wiry, and eich hair looked like a miniature 

 porcupine-quill. "With his long snaky body, his vicious- 

 looking claws, his sharp nose, and his villainous eye 

 he wiis like murder incarnate. As he slided about on deck, 

 casting keen glances from side to side, and undulating over 

 chaiii.s, or ropes, or stray blocks, he looked very fell and un- 

 canny. At nisht, when thedews came down, the rats would 

 come up to sip the moisture. That was a time of rejoicing 

 for the mungoose. His mode of working was marvel- 

 lously skilful: not even the celebrated terrier which belonged 



