536 CARNIVORA 
snakes. H. ichnewmon was a sacred animal to the ancient 
Egyptians. They vary considerably in appearance, some, as J. 
gulera and H. urva (Fig. 240), are larger and heavier, with stouter 
body, longer limbs, and stronger teeth. The common Indian 
Mungoose (H. mwngo) is considerably smaller than the Egyptian 
form; its fur is of a pale gray colour, the hairs being largely 
white ringed, while the cheeks and throat are more or less reddish. 
Like the Egyptian species, it is frequently domesticated, and put 
to a similar use. It is especially serviceable in India as a serpent- 
killer, destroying not only the eggs and young of these creatures, 
but attacking without hesitation and killing the most venomous 
Fia, 240.—The Crab-eating Mungoose (Herpestes urva). From Blanford, Mammalia of 
British India, p. 180. 
adult snakes. The fact that it invariably survives those en- 
counters has led to the belief that it either enjoys immunity from 
the effects of snake-poison, or that after being bitten it has 
recourse, as the natives maintain, to the root of a plant as an 
antidote. Neither of these suppositions has stood the test of 
scientific examination, for it has been found that when actually 
bitten it falls a victim to the poison as rapidly as other mammals, 
while there is no trustworthy evidence of its seeking a vegetable 
antidote. The truth seems to be that the Mungoose, by its 
exceeding agility and quickness of eye, avoids the fangs of the 
snake while fixing its own teeth in the back of the reptile’s neck. 
One large species, believed to be from Africa, recently described as 
H. grandis, is remarkable for the extreme complexity of the cusps 
on the molars, and also for the absence of an entepicondylar 
foramen to the humerus; the latter feature also occurring in the 
allied H. albicuudatus. The Oriental H. wrra (Fig. 246) is stated to 
be somewhat aquatic in habits, and to feed on frogs and crabs. 
