96 THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 



for the prompt interest he took in this matter. Such applied interest is 

 capable co-operation, and as executive head of the Quarantine Service 

 I most earnestly wish there were more citizens of this same calibre. 

 However, the gist of this paragraph is this : Despite our most diligent 

 endeavors we could not establish a fact nor advance this story one step 

 beyond the shadowland of a myth or the standpoint of a hoax. 



On May 13, 1915, the newspapers again reported that a mongoose had 

 passed through the quarantine lines, and worse still had escaped from 

 its owner. No mistake this time, the exact location was given — a hotel 



on street. However, there was a ray of hope; the animal 



was reported to be throwing bed clothes out of the window. Those who 

 know the mongoose best and have seen it on its native heath, or rather 

 "Dungaree Green," of a Sunday afternoon engaged in bringing to an 

 abrupt close certain forms of serpentine life, are entitled to entertain 

 serious doubts of its ability to perform any such feats as above reported. 

 Nevertheless, as in duty bound, we pursued this clue to the end and 

 located the animal in charge of the proper official at the San Francisco 

 pound. A harmless little Kinka jou from Mexico ! No wonder it had 

 passed the quarantine lines. "The poor little beast is in a tight place; 

 may all good fortune attend him; he is outside our jurisdiction," I said 

 to my deputy, George Compere, and the incident was closed. 



The foregoing stories went the rounds of the press and created some 

 apprehension, to judge from the correspondence we received on the 

 matter; also, the same was justified. The establishment of the mon- 

 goose in California would mean ultimately the annihilation of our 

 groimd-nesting birds and serious interference with the poultry industry. 

 This is not a supposition. It is a fact that has followed in its fullness 

 and entirety the introduction of this animal into the West Indian and 

 the Hawaiian Islands. The following excerpt taken from the Year 

 Book, United States Department of Agriculture, 1898, page 94, cor- 

 roborates the above statement : 



"Still the mongoose increased, and its omnivorous habits became 

 more and more apparent as the rats diminished. It destroyed 

 young pigs, kids, lambs, kittens, puppies, the native 'coney,' or 

 capromys, poultry, game, birds which nested on or near the ground, 

 eggs, snakes, ground lizards, frogs, turtles' eggs, and land crabs. 

 It was also kno^vn to eat ripe bananas, pineapples, young corn, 

 avocado pears, sweet potatoes, cocoanuts, and other fruits. Toward 

 the close of the second decade the mongoose, originally considered 

 very beneficial, came to be regarded as the greatest pest ever intro- 

 duced into the island. Poultry and domesticated animals suffered 

 from its depredations, and the short-tailed capromys {Capromys 

 hrachyurus) , which was formerly numerous, became almost extinct 

 except in some of the mountainous districts. The ground dove 

 (Columbigallina passerina) and the quail dove (Geotrygon mon- 

 tana) became rare, and the introduced bobwhite, or quail, was 

 almost exterminated. The peculiar Jamaica petrel (Aestrelata 

 caribhcea), which nested in the mountains of the island, likewise 

 became almost exterminated. Snakes, represented by at least five 

 species, all harmless, and lizards, including about twenty species, 

 were greatly diminished in numbers. The same thing was true of 

 the land and fresh-water tortoises and the marine turtle {Chelone 



