476 THE CARNIVORES 



the reptile's head. He seemed to know instinctively which were the poisonous 

 ones, and acted with corresponding caution. I tried him once with some sea 

 snakes, which are poisonous, but he could get no fight out of them, and crunched 

 their heads off, one after the other." 



Much has been written as to the combats of both the Egyptian and the Indian 

 mungoose with venomous snakes, and also as to the alleged immunity of these 

 animals from snake poison. On these points Mr. Blanford writes as follows: 

 " The prevalent belief throughout Oriental countries is, that the mungoose, when 

 bitten, seeks for an antidote, an herb or root known in India as manguswail. It is 

 scarcely necessary to say that the story is destitute of foundation. There is, how- 

 ever, another view, supported by some evidence, that the mungoose is less suscepti- 

 ble to snake poison than other animals. The mungoose is not always willing to 

 attack, though at other times he is ready enough to fight. I have not seen many 

 combats, but so far as I can judge from the few I have witnessed, Jerdon and Stern- 

 dale are correct in their view that the mungoose usually escapes being bitten by his 

 wonderful activity. He appears to wait till the snake makes a dart at him, and 

 then suddenly pounces upon the reptile's head and crunches it to pieces. I have 

 seen a mungoose eat up the head and poison glands of a large cobra, so the poison 

 must be harmless to the mucous membrane of the former animal. When excited, 

 the mungoose erects its long stiff hair, and it must be very difficult for a snake to 

 drive its fangs through this and through the thick skin which all kinds of Herpestes 

 possess. In all probability a mungoose is very rarely scratched by the fangs, and, 

 if he is, very little poison can be injected. It has been repeatedly proved by ex- 

 periments that a mungoose can be killed, like any other animal, if properly bitten 

 by a venomous snake, though even in this case the effects appear to be produced 

 after a longer period than with other Mammals of the same size. ' ' 



In addition to being a benefactor to the human race as a destroyer of poisonous 

 snakes, the Indian mungoose (like its Egyptian cousin) is equally valuable as an 

 exterminator of rats ; ships having more than once been cleared of these pests in a 

 comparatively short period by the introduction of a mungoose. In 1871 the sugar- 

 planting industry in Jamaica was threatened with annihilation from the damage in- 

 flicted on the canes by a particular species of rats, which absolutely swarmed in the 

 island. After ferrets, toads, and ants had been tried with more or less ill success 

 to stay the plague, Mr. W. B. Espeut bethought himself of introducing the Indian 

 mungoose. Accordingly, in the spring of 1872, nine of these animals were imported 

 and let loose in the island. ' ' Within a few months, ' ' writes Mr. Espeut, ' ' young 

 ones were seen about, and in less than six months there was evidence, clear and 

 certain, that the rats were much less destructive than they had ever been known. 

 Fewer rats were caught and fewer canes were destroyed, month after month. 

 Within two years the expenditure in killing rats ceased almost entirely, and in 

 another year I enjoyed relief and immunity; and ever since the losses from rats have 

 been a mere trifle. Within a very short time (three years) neighboring estates 

 found a similar benefit, and some of my brother sugar planters, who had laughed at 

 me for supposing the mungoose would do any good, began to buy all they could 

 procure from the natives, who, setting traps on my lands, stole all the mungooses 



