MANUAL OF THE NILAGIR: DISTRICT. 153 



aai antidote to the poison of the reptile, but it is now known that CHAP. VIII, 

 the mungoos does not have recourse to any specific when bitten. PART I. 

 The impunity with which it comes out of such conflicts is zoology. 



entirely owing to the little animal's boldness and cunning mode 



of attack, and if fairly bitten by a poisonous snake, such as the 

 cobra, there can be no doubt that the results would be fatal. 



The Wild Dog. — This animal, Guon rutilans, with its beautiful —Wild Dog. 

 rusty red coat, large erect ears, eyes staring into the far distance, 

 and cruel face, is certainly one of the most distinguished- looking 

 of the /era' naivrceoi Southern India. Its- cousins, the jackal and 

 fox, have always a sneaking expression about them, as befits their 

 habits ; but the bold look of the dog shows that it is made of 

 sterner material, and its habits do not belie its physiognomy. 

 Wild dogs always hunt in packs, chiefly during the day, and 

 while thus engaged, keep up a peculiar sort of bark. When once 

 they have fixed on their destined victim, they follow it with 

 unfaltering perseverance until the animal becomes exhausted, 

 when they rush in and worry it to death. They prey on deer and 

 smaller animals, and Sir Walter Elliot mentions that he has known 

 tigers leave a jungle in which a pack of wild dogs had taken up 

 its quarters. This they possibly did not from any fear of the 

 dogs, but because the presence of the latter would diminish the 

 number of game and supply of food. Natives have rather a dread 

 of the wild dogs, and consider it very unsafe to attack them, 

 more especially if they are engaged in feeding on some animal 

 they may have killed. 



Squirrels. — Seven species of squirrels are found on the hills, —Squirrels. 

 One of these, the Nilagiri striped squirrel, is peculiar to the hill 

 ranges of Southern India and Ceylon, but a nearly allied, if 

 not identical, species, the Sciurus insignis of Horsfield, is found in 

 Java. The flying squirrel also frequents dense forests at low eleva- 

 tions on the western slopes of the hills. It is very difficult to 

 procure, being, like the bats, nocturnal in its habits ; but specimens 

 can generally be obtained when forest is being felled for coffee 

 plantations. 



Rats. — Several species of rats and four of mice are found on the —Rata. 

 Nilagiris. One of these, Golimda Elliotti, is also common in 

 Ceylon, and is well known to planters both there and in Southern 

 India as the coffee rat. It is so called because in certain seasons 

 it invades coffee estates in large numbers, and proves very destruc- 

 tive by cutting the young branches and eating the flowers of the 

 coffee plant. Planters believe that it usually subsists on the 

 seeds of the bamboo, and that when supplies of these fail it resorts 

 to the coffee plantations. However this may be, it is very destruc- 

 tive owing to the immense numbers in which it appears. Its 



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