CATALOGUE. 91 



informs us, that " even in captivity, they retain much of their native 

 spirit, and so great is their activity and determination, that the indivi- 

 dual now in the Tower actually on one occasion killed no fewer than 

 a dozen full-grown rats, which were loosed to it in a room sixteen feet 

 square, in less than a minute and a half. They are very easily tamed, 

 become attached to those with whom they are familiar, and to the house 

 in which they live, and will follow their master about almost like a 

 dog." (Tower Menagerie, p. 106.) 



The peculiar antipathy of this animal to serpents, and the means 

 it is said to employ to secure itself from the effects of the poison, if 

 bitten, is noticed by various authors. Colonel Sykes states ; " 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 the serpent, by eating the root of a plant called Moongus- 

 wail, but no one has ever seen the plant. Probably they allude to the 

 Ophiorrhiza mungos." 



Kaempfer observed this species in his travels through Asia, and gives 

 the following account of its habits, and of the use it makes of the Radix 

 mungo as an antidote : " Est mustelae huic is generis, ut serpentem 

 naturali odio prosequatur et velut glirem catus evadat. Tradunt 

 igitur si contingat morderi muncum, serpentis astutia roboreque victum, 

 relicto hoste, pro alexipharmaco hanc radicem quaerere, et esu ejus 

 illico restitutum, certamen reintegrare. . . . Domi alita facile mansuescit : 

 habui, quae mecum dormivit et instar caniculi domestici, per urbem et 

 campos me secuta est." (Amcen. exotic, p. 574.) 



The plant figured by Rumphius as Radix mustelte appears to repre- 

 sent the Ophioxylon serpentinum, but it remains to be determined 

 whether the Radix mungo of Kaempfer be the same plant. 



112. HERPESTES NIPALENSIS, Gray. 



Herpestes nipalensis, Gray, Mag. Nat. Hist. New Series, I. 

 p. 578. Catal. Mamm. Br. Mus. p. 52. Catal. Hodg- 

 son's Collection, p. 9. Zoology of H. M. S. Sama- 

 rang, p. 15. 



Herpestes (Mangusta) auropunctatus, Hodgson, Journ. As. 

 Soc. Beng. V. p. 235. Classified Catal. of Nepal 

 Mamm., Journ. As. Soc, Beng. X. p. 909. Cantor, 

 Catal. of Malayan Mamm. p. 34. McClelland, Pro- 

 ceed. Zool. Soc. 1839,;?. 150. 



Herpestes griseus, Hutton, Rough Notes on the Zoology of 

 Candahar, Journ. As. Soc. Beng. XIV. p. 346. 



