NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA 
I held a post-mortem, and found that it had died 
of snake-venom poisoning. Its stomach was badly 
congested, and extensive hemorrhage had occurred 
therein, and in some adjacent tissues. Now, what 
evidently occurred was that the mungoose only 
slightly chewed up the head of the reptile before 
swallowing it, and the spasmodic working of the 
snake’s jaws had driven one or both fangs into the 
wall of the stomach, the venom being at the same 
time discharged from the glands into the cellular 
tissue, and thus got direct into the blood stream. 
Snake venom when swallowed is digested like 
ordinary albuminous foodstuffs, and therefore does 
no harm. It is poisonous only when it gets into 
the blood stream unchanged. 
A Water Mungoose, which a friend had at Port 
Elizabeth, gave birth to two young ones in the 
month of August. The mother kept them in a 
nest of grass in a dark corner of the cage. When 
they were old enough to leave the nest she showed 
the greatest anxiety for their welfare. When any- 
one approached the cage she quickly pushed the 
little creatures out of sight amongst the fur between 
her hind legs, and faced the intruder in a menacing 
attitude, ready to sacrifice her life in defence of . 
her babies. 
The natural diet of the Water Mungoose consists 
of almost any species of living creature it is able 
to overpower. When food is abundant in and 
near water, they seldom venture far from their 
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