HERPESTES ORISEUS. 133 



Average length, head and body, about 16 to 17 inches ; tail 14. It 

 is said occasionally to reach 20 inches and upwards, with the tail 16J. 



This mungoos is spread througli most of Southern India, replaced in 

 Bengal and the lower Gangetic plains by a nearly allied one, H. malac- 

 censis. I am not able to state the limits of each species exactly, but the 

 present animal occurs in the North-west Provinces and the Punjab, and 

 throughout the Deccan up to the Nerbudda river. It frequents alike 

 the open country and low jungles, being found in dense hedgerows, 

 thickets, holes in banks, &c. ; and it is very destructive to such birds as 

 frequent the ground. Not unfrequently it gets access to tame pigeons, 

 rabbits, or poultry, and commits great havoc, sucking the blood only of 

 several. I have often seen it make a dash into a verandah where some 

 cages of mynas, parrakeets, &c., were daily placed, and endeavour to 

 tear them from their cages. 



It also hunts for, and devours, the eggs of partridges, quails, and other 

 ground-laying birds ; and it will also kill rats, lizards, and small snakes. 

 I do not think it would go out of its way to attack a large snake in its 

 wild state. Colonel Sykes states, that " it is believed by the Mahratta 

 people to have a natural antipathy to serpents, and in its contests with 

 them to be able to neutralize the poison from the bite of serpents by 

 eating the root of a plant called moonguswail ; but no one has ever seen 

 the plant." This is the prevalent belief throughout all India, and also 

 in Java, and many experiments have been made with a view to test the 

 native idea above referred to, that the mungoos, either by virtue of some 

 plant to which it has recourse, or from some other cause, is proof against 

 the bite of a cobra. Many have asserted that after being apparently bitten, 

 it would retire to some hedge side, returning shortly with evident marks 

 of its having eaten some green herb ; whilst others have declared that it 

 never attempted anything of the kind even when set free, and that where 

 it was forcibly kept indoors it suffered as little as if allowed its liberty. I 

 of course entirely disbelieve in the efficacy of any herb as an antidote to 

 the serpent's poison ; and I do not think that the mungoos habitually 

 has resort to any herb if bitten. The plants are supposed to be Ophiorhizon 

 serpentinum, and 0. mungos. I have witnessed many contests between a 

 mungoos and cobra, and though the mungoos has in general succeeded in 

 killing the serpent, it often declines the combat, or undertakes it some- 

 what unwillingly. In none of the combats that I have seen has the 

 mungoos suffered, but my belief is that it generally escapes being bitten 



