1888-89.] The IcJineuinon or Mimgoos. 255 



I soon found that the pet referred to was the ichneumon. 

 Since that time I have collected some information regarding 

 this animal, and as I found the subject an extremely interest- 

 ing one, I have ventured to bring it before the Society. 



Of the ichneumon (Her'pestcs) there are, it would appear, 

 twenty-two species in all ; but the Egyptian and Indian 

 ichneumons are the forms best known. The ichneumon is of 

 the family Viverridse, and resembles in appearance the civet or 

 ferret. It is nocturnal in its habits, and is the unrelenting foe 

 of birds, reptiles, rats, and mice. It is a very pretty animal, 

 and being cleanly and easily tamed, it is in great demand in 

 the countries which it inhabits, where it is used for the pur- 

 pose of keeping the houses free from vermin. One great draw- 

 back it has, however, namely, that it is impossible to get it to 

 give its undivided attention to vermin, and it invariably plays 

 havoc in the poultry-yard whenever opportunity offers. The 

 ichneumon was one of the animals proposed to be sent to 

 New Zealand for the purpose of lessening, or, as some of its 

 admirers prophesied, stamping out altogether, the rabbit pest, 

 with which that colony has suffered so much lately. It was 

 considered that being so readily domesticated, the same danger 

 might not apply to its introduction as in the case of other 

 recognised enemies of the rabbit, of the remedy ultimately 

 proving worse than the disease. I do not think that any 

 permanent good is ever accomplished by the interference to 

 any great extent in the distribution of animals, whether by 

 the extermination of one species or the forced increase of 

 others. Witness the result of the raids which are made 

 periodically against certain classes of so-called vermin. So 

 surely as the balance which is seen everywhere in the animal 

 world is upset by, say for instance, the extirpation of any one 

 species, so surely do the executioners suffer by the abnormal 

 increase of another species which it was the province of the 

 exterminated animals to hold in check. When one, therefore, 

 hears gamekeepers who, after indiscriminately trapping and 

 killing all manner of furred and feathered vermin, complain of 

 weak and unhealthy birds ; or gardeners who, after shooting 

 without mercy our feathered friends, bewail the damage done 

 by grubs and insects to their fruit-trees ; or farmers who, 

 after destroying the entire rooks in their neighbourhood, 



