THE MUNGOOSE 



Where Found in Africa — An All-around Fighter — Hater of Snakes — Kills a Poisonous 

 Cobra — Clears Cuba and Porta Rico of Rats. 



No traveler who is at all observant can fail to meet in the Masai steppe, 

 which covers a great part of British East Africa, a graceful, marten-like 

 animal, the mungoose. There are several species of them, different in color 

 and size, varying from a good-sized weasel to a full-grown cat. They are 

 often found living in ant-hills together with the ground-squirrels. The mun- 

 goose is social in its habits and often herds of these animals ravage the steppe, 

 devouring everything eatable, plants as well as animals. In its rapid move- 

 ments a string of mungoose often resembles a big, moving snake. To watch 

 these agile animals affords a great deal of amusement. When they suspect 

 danger they all run for home — that is, the termite-hill — and keep in hiding 

 for hours. But by and by first one, then a second, and finally all poke their 

 noses out of their little holes, venture out and about their stronghold, leaping 

 and skipping, running in and out as if playing hide and seek. 



An African traveler who has spent many years in the tropics of the dark 

 Continent gives the following interesting details as to the natural history of the 

 Mungoose. Says he : 



To my mind the best all-around rough-and-ready fighter, of his size, 

 in the animal kingdom is the mungoose. In India this little creature de- 

 lights in nothing so much as to meet a cobra, the most deadly of all snakes. 



The mungoose is about the size of a cat. It lies in wait for its hered- 

 itary enemy, or rather victim, for the fight always has one ending, and 

 when the serpent comes into range attacks with a desperation born of the 

 knowledge of the cobra's venomous bite. His mode of attack is to tease 

 the snake into darting at him, when with inconceivable rapidity he pounces 

 on the reptile's head. 



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 immu- 

 nity of these animals from snake poison. The prevalent belief throughout 

 oriental countries is that the mungoose, when bitten, seeks for an antidote, 

 a herb or root known in India as manguswail. It is scarcely necessary to 

 say that the story is destitute of foundation. There is, however, another 

 view, supported by some evidence, that the mungoose is less susceptible to 

 snake poison than other animals. I have not seen many combats, but, so 

 far as I can judge from the few I have witnessed, the mungoose escaped 



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