MUNGOOSES 79 



Some of the varieties tame readily and are most useful 

 in freeing a house from such pests as rats, snakes, and 

 cockroaches, but are most difficult to keep with dogs, which 

 are apt to regard them in the light of natural prey. 



Many different kinds of mungooses are recognized 

 in South Africa ; but in the wilder parts of the country 

 it is seldom that resident Europeans can be induced to 

 take any interest in the smaller mammals which are not 

 included under the magic name of "game." Mungooses 

 are among the deadliest enemies of snakes, which they 

 attack, kill, and devour whenever they can. 



The Large Grey Mungoose. Colour grizzled grey, 

 limbs darker, a black brush at the end of the tail. Length 

 over all about forty-five inches. 



This animal is spread throughout the Ethiopian region. 

 It is solitary and nocturnal in habit, and is carnivorous, 

 preying on small rodents, game birds, frogs, and reptiles. 

 In the eastern Transvaal it is usually an inhabitant of the 

 less thickly forested, flat bush country, and the foothills 

 of the mountains. It favours equally rocky and level 

 ground. 



Measurements of a large one killed in the Game Reserve 

 were : head and body, twenty-three inches ; tail, twenty- 

 three inches ; fore-girth, nine inches ; hind foot five inches. 



The Slender Mungoose. This is a small, slightly built 

 creature, about the size of a stoat. Its colour is grizzled 

 yellowish brown, the tail is almost as long as the head and 

 body and is black at the end. 



The Slender Mungoose is distributed throughout the 

 whole of the Ethiopian region. It is found equally in 

 thick bush and in lightly forested country. By day 

 it lies up in holes or in long grass. It is nocturnal and 

 solitary in habit, and of a rather bold and bloodthirsty 

 disposition, having the reputation of attacking hen- 



