HERPESTES. 12.J 



cated, very much attached to its owner, intelligent and anuising. 

 An excellent account is given by Sterndale (Nat. Hist. Tnd. Mam. 

 p. 223) of one that he had tame, and that died of grief when 

 separated for a time from its master. The itinerant showmen, 

 who are common throughout India, are frequently accompanied 

 l)y a tame mungoose, and most of the fights between these animals 

 and snakes that are witnessed by Europeans are waged by such 

 tame individuals. As is so commonly the case, a tame mungoose 

 Avill doubtless attack a much more formidable opponent than a 

 wild one would. Sterndale's mungoose once attacked a greyhound, 

 and mortally injured a male bustard, Eupodotis edwardsi, a bird 

 about six times the weight of its assailant. 



Much has been written about the combats between this animal 

 and venomous snakes, and about the innnunity of the mungoose from 

 the effects of the serpent's bite. The prevalent belief thi'oughout 

 oriental countries is, that the mungoose, when bitten, seeks for an 

 antidote, a herb or a root known in India as iiuuu/usK'ail. It is 

 scarcely necessary to say that the story is destitute of foundation. 

 There is, however, another view supported by some e\ idence, that 

 the mungoose is less susceptible to snake-poison than other animals. 

 The numgoose is not always willing to attaclc, though at other 

 times he is ready enough to fight. I have not seen many combats, 

 but so far as 1 can judge from the few I have witnessed, Jerdon 

 and Sterndale are correct in their A'iew tliat the mungoose usually 

 escapes being bitten by his wonderful acti\ity. He appears to 

 wait until the snake makes a dart at him, and then suddenly 

 pounces on the reptile's head, and crunches it to pieces. I have 

 seen a mungoose eat up the head and poison-glands of a large 

 cobra, so the poison must be harmless to the mucous membrane of 

 the former animal. A¥hen excited, the mungoose erects its long 

 stiff hair, and it must be very difficult for a snake to drive its 

 fangs through this, and through the thick skin which all kinds of 

 Herpestcs possess. In all probability a mungoose is very rarely 

 scratched by the fangs, and, if he is, very little poison can be 

 injected. It has been repeatedly proved by experiment that a 

 mungoose can be killed, like any other animal, if jjroperly bitten by 

 a venomous snake, though even in this case the effects appear to be 

 produced after a longer period than with other mammals of the 

 same size. 



The mungoose is an excellent ratter, soon clearing a house of 

 rats and mice. A tame individual in Loudon is said to have killed, 

 on one occasion, a dozen full-grown rats in less than a minute and 

 a half. Within the last fifteen years the introduction of H. munr/o 

 into Jamaica is said to have resulted in a saving of from ^6100,000 

 to .£15(1,000 annually, owing to the decreased number of the rats 

 which destroy the sugar-canes (P. Z. S. 1882, p. 712). 



The cry of this mungoose, according to Sterndale, is a grating 

 mew, varied occasionally by a little querulous yelp, which seems to 

 be given in an interrogative mood, when the animal is searching 

 for anything ; when angry it grow Is most audibly for so small a 



