202 THE EGYPTIAN MANGOUSTE. 



to go and come unmolested and unregarded -, but a few days 

 after, when alone, it strangled them all, ate a little, and, as 

 appeared, drank the blood of two. The probability is, that had 

 the snake been brought up with it in the same way that the 

 birds were, it would have shown no " instinctive" enmity 

 against it j and that it only attacked the snake from fear that 

 this stranger to its acquaintance might otherwise become the 

 aggressor. No animal ever seizes another by the tail, to be 

 put off with a mouthful of hair, and therefore there is no vast 

 display of instinct in the mangouste's seizing the snake by 

 the head j for had a gentle dove been presented to the mangouste, 

 the latter would have aimed at the same part. Every animal 

 knows, from the observation of others, and a consciousness of 

 its own ways, that the head goes foremost, and that it must 

 make to that part if it desire to arrest the progress of its prey 

 or its foe. That is a bad hound, therefore, that seizes the prey 

 by the leg. 



The natural history of the Egyptian mangouste, in most 

 works on zoology, is confounded with that of other species, and 

 there are several others. At the Cape, are found Herpestes cafra, 

 H. paludinosus, and H. penicillatus ; in India, H.mungos, and H. 

 griseus ; in North India, H. nepalensis ; in the Indian Islands, H. 

 brachyurus ; in Madagascar, H. Bennettii ; in Java, H. Javanicus ; 

 in Senegal, H. albicaudus ,- and in Abyssinia, H. fasciata. In the 

 British Museum is a species, which Mr. J. E. Gray has christened 

 H. Smithii; but the animal's birth-place is unknown. 



THE SURICATE.* (Ryzcena tetradactyla, Gmelin.) 



The suricate inhabits Africa, chiefly the mountainous parts 

 above the Cape of Good Hope. 



It has a strong resemblance to the mangoustes, even in the 

 tints and transverse streaks of the hair, but is distinguished 

 from them and all the preceding carnivorous animals by its 



* Sonnerat's figure of the zenik (Voyages, vol. ii. pi. xcii.) appears to be the 

 suricate, but roughly drawn. 



