256 The Ichneumon or Mimgoos. [Sess. 



bemoan the ravages of slugs, wire -worms, &c. — one is inclined 

 to reply to one and all, " Who began it, my friend ? " 



But to return to our mungoos. The Egyptian ichneumon 

 is, as its name implies, an inhabitant of Egypt and the north 

 of Africa, and is known there as Pharaoh's rat. This species, 

 when full grown, is about the size of a domestic cat. The fur 

 is a mixture of chestnut brown and yellow, while the feet and 

 muzzle are black. Among the ancient Egyptians these animals 

 were considered sacred, and were after death buried in " holy 

 repositories." The mungoos feeds on rats and mice, birds and 

 reptiles, and its fondness for eggs leads it to search for those 

 of the crocodile, and scratch up the sand under which they 

 deposit their eggs. It is in this way they do good, in checking 

 the too great multiplication of these disagreeable animals ; but 

 there is no truth whatever in the belief, entertained at one 

 time, that the mungoos destroyed the crocodile by springing 

 into its open mouth when that animal was having a siesta, or 

 lying gorged after a heavy meal, and, to put it mildly, " upset- 

 ting its internal arrangements." 



The Indian ichneumon or mungoos is much smaller than its 

 Egyptian brother, and is of a beautiful, freckled, grey colour. 

 It is often brought to this country for the purpose of destroy- 

 ing rats, and thrives well in confinement. Mr Bennet tells 

 of one kept in the Tower, which killed no fewer than a dozen 

 full-grown rats, which had been turned out before it in a room 

 sixteen feet square, in less than a minute and a half. It is 

 stated that in Jamaica alone the introduction of the mungoos 

 has resulted in a saving of from £100,000 to £150,000 

 annually, owing to the decrease of rats, which destroy the 

 sugar-cane. It is, however, especially appreciated in India 

 as a serpent-killer, and it never hesitates to attack even full- 

 grown venomous snakes. The fact that the mungoos survived 

 these encounters led to the belief that it was impervious to 

 the bite of the snake, and that the poison had no injurious 

 effect upon it, and this was explained by the fact that the 

 mungoos, when bitten, searched for and ate an herb or root 

 known in India as mungttswail, which was said to prove an 

 infallible antidote to snake poison. This belief, however, has 

 not stood the test of experiment, for it has been found that 

 when fairly bitten by a venomous snake, the mungoos has no 



