THE MUNGOOSE 
waterside retreats, being content with a diet of 
frogs, crabs, fish, water snakes, aquatic insects, and 
the eggs and young of aquatic birds. 
In Natal, Zululand, and the Eastern Transvaal 
there is an animal which attains the bulk of an adult 
rabbit, known as the Cane Rat (Thryonomys), which 
haunts the reedy banks of rivers, ponds, and 
marshes, as well as the neighbouring lands. The 
Water Mungoose is an inveterate enemy of these 
Cane Rats, for their flesh is a welcome addition to 
its diet. This Cane Rat is a rodent or gnawing 
animal, and is exceedingly destructive to sugar- 
cane, and the crops of the farmer, especially the 
mealies, the stalks of which it gnaws in order to 
feast upon the unripe milky grain. Therefore, the 
Water Mungoose, by preying upon this animal, 
renders man a considerable service. When the 
various creatures on which it preys, near its haunts 
on the margins of marshes, ponds, and water- 
courses, are insufficient for its needs, as is often 
the case, the Water Mungoose forages around in 
the neighbourhood and levies a heavy toll on rats, 
mice, snakes, and noxious insects. Should locusts 
be available, it devours them with avidity. If this 
mungoose lives in proximity to man, however, and 
its natural supplies of food should be insufficient, 
it causes him much soreness of heart and bitterness 
of feeling, by its attacks on his poultry, which are 
carried out under cover of darkness. A farmer at 
whose homestead I often stayed in Natal had 
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