THE ANGOLA MUNGOOSE. 249 



India with some of the species inhabiting that country. Not 

 only so, but Mungooses have been introduced into the West 

 Indies for the purpose of killing the Rats that were at one time 

 playing havoc with the sugar-canes ; but although the experi- 

 ment has been successful, it has been very fatal to several 

 kinds of birds. The common Indian Mungoose, which bur- 

 rows holes for itself, produces from three to four young in a 

 litter; and, like the other species, is commonly found either 

 singly or in pairs. Although these animals are naturally fierce 

 and bloodthirsty, they can be readily tamed, when they form 

 gentle and affectionate little pets, without the ill-odour which 

 renders the Civets so objectionable. 



Mungooses are deadly enemies to Snakes, attacking even 

 the most venomous kinds with general impunity, although if 

 severely bitten, they die like other animals. Probably they 

 owe this immunity to their extreme activity, although they are, 

 probably, less susceptible to Snake-venom than other Mammals. 



III. THE ANGOLA MUNGOOSE. HERPESTES ANGOLENSIS. 



Herpestes ango/ensis, Bocage, Journ. Sci. Lisb. ser. 2, vol. ii. 

 p. 32 (1890). 



Characters. — Closely allied to the two preceding. The dark 

 brown pelage, speckled with rufous, approximates this form to 

 H. ichneumon, but its size is larger, and the tail considerably 

 longer ; characters by which it is equally well distinguished 

 from H. caffer. The rufous rings on the hairs are decidedly 

 narrower than in H. ichneumon. The muzzle, chin, fore-legs, 

 and feet are deep black; the remainder of the pelage speckled 

 with rufous on a blackish-brown ground The proximal fifth 

 of the tail is covered with long brown hairs ringed with rufous ; 

 in the remainder of the tail, except the black tip, the hairs are 

 short and uniformly bright rufous. 



Distribution. — West Africa (Angola), 



