NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA 
closed, and a fearful struggle took place. When 
the other terriers had almost reached the site of 
the battle. the mungoose succeeded in gripping the 
terrier by the throat, and the two sank from sight. 
_ In about a minute’s time they reappeared some 
yards further downstream, but almost instantly 
vanished. Nothing more was seen of them that 
day. Visiting the river late the following after- 
noon, the bodies of both combatants were seen 
floating near the bank. The grip of the mungoose 
had not relaxed. In death its jaws were rigid, and 
its canine teeth buried deep in the throat of the 
dog. This mungoose proved to be an old male. 
I have frequently i these Water Mungooses 
in captivity, but unless caught very young they 
are apt to be suspicious, and snap at the fingers 
when attempts are made to handle them, even 
after being a considerable time in captivity. If 
taken into captivity when small, all species of South 
African mungooses may be rendered almost, if 
not quite, as tame as domestic cats. They never, 
however, lose their natural suspicious, secretive, 
nervous nature, and the sudden appearance of a 
stranger or some domestic animal with which 
they are not familiar, or any sudden unusual noise, 
will send a tame mungoose into a frenzy of fear, 
and it will steal swiftly off with body elongated, 
and crouching low, to the darkest and quietest 
retreat, and lie hidden for hours. 
A Water Mungoose which I had recently cap- 
28 
