124 TIVEERID.i:. 



rings are longer than the dark. The lips are often rufous brown. 

 Claws dark brown. 



Dimensions. Head and body 15 to 18 inches, tail 14 to 15 ; weight 

 about 3 pounds. Males are considerably larger than females. A 

 large skull, probably male, is 3 inches in basal length, and 1*65 

 in breadth across the zygomatic arches, whilst a small adult female 

 skull measures only 2'7 inches by 1'5. 



Distribution. Found throughout the peninsula of India, from the 

 Himalayas to Cape Comorin, and also in Ceylon. H. mungo ranges 

 on the west to tSind and Afghanistan, and doubtless into Baluch- 

 istan. I have a specimen of a peculiarly pale colour with Aery 

 loDg hair from Haztira, west of Kashmir, but this species is not 

 known to be found on the Himalayas at any elevation further east, 

 though common near the foot of the hills. It occurs throughout 

 Bengal, and is said to be found in Assam ; but it has not been 

 observed in Burma, and the single specimen obtained by Cantor in 

 the Malay Peninsula may very probably have been imported, 

 •whilst the original derivation of Cuvier's type of H. mahurensis 

 from Malacca is very doubtful. 



Varieties. Blyth and Jerdon distinguished the Bengal race as 

 H. malaccensis. This is generally darker in colour, with the head 

 and legs more rufous, but some Bengal specimens are similar to 

 those from Southern India, and there appears to. be no constant 

 distinction, either in colour or size. A richly ferruginous foi-m is 

 found in Sind, besides the common grey type, and is a well-marked 

 variety. On account of the coloration and some apparent differ- 

 ences in the skull, I distinguished this as H. ferriujineus, but the 

 skull characters appear due to immaturity. A very large, old 

 example of this ferruginous variety is the type of Mr. Murray's 

 H. andersoni, which he has very obligingly sent to me for com- 

 })arison. 



Habits. The common mungoose is found in hedgerows, thickets, 

 groves of trees, cultivated fields, banks of streams, and broken 

 bushy ground, but not commonly in dense forest. It is often found 

 about houses. It lives and breeds in holes dug by itself. Very 

 little appears to be known of its breeding-habits. It is often seen 

 in pairs ; the young are three or four in number, and are produced 

 in the spring. 



The food of this anin)al is a aried. It lives principally upon rats 

 and mice, snakes and lizards, such birds as it can capture, eggs 

 and insects, but it eats fruit at times. The stomach of one killed 

 near 8ecunderabad contained, aiccrding to McMaster, a quail, 

 a small wasp's nest, a lizard {Calotes versicolor), a number of 

 insects, and part of a custard apple. The mungoose is sanguinary 

 and destructive, and \\hen it gains access to tame rabbits, poidtry, 

 or ])igeons, it, Jerdon says, " commits great havoc, sucking the 

 blood oidy of several." He adds, "I have often seen it make a 

 dash into a verandah v\here some cages of mynahs, parrakeets, &c. 

 were daily ])laced, and e]idea\our to tear them from their cages." 



The mungoos(,' is easily tamed and becomes thoroughly domesti- 



