106 



THE COCO-NUT 



CHAP. 



are found, in different kinds, throughout the range of 

 the coco-nut, and occasionally molest the nuts. In the 

 West Indies, and still more in East Africa, they do 

 appreciable mischief to this crop, but in general they 

 find other fruit more to their taste. Something can be 

 accomplished by shooting in the plantations ; but where 

 they are numerous it is necessary to find and break up 

 their roosts. 



The rat is an enemy of the coco-nut in scattered 

 localities throughout the tropics. The rat is most 

 dangerous as a bearer of bubonic plague, and in places 

 it has been found worth while to practically exterminate 

 the animal for this reason. When this is done, the 

 coco -nuts are freed from the pest at the same time. 

 To get rid of rats in coco-nuts, the most practicable 

 method is probably surrounding the trunk of each tree 

 with a collar of tin or sheet iron, several inches wide, 

 and attached so that it slants outward and downward 

 from the tree. This treatment of the trees is costly 

 enough, so that it is not worth while except where the 

 damage done by rats is especially serious, or where the 

 rats are being got rid of for sanitary reasons. 



The bandicoot, a huge rat reaching a length of as 

 much as 2 feet, native in India and neighbouring 

 regions, kills young trees outright for the sake of the 

 tender internal structures. Trees four to five years of 

 age are not yet free from such attack. A report from 

 Ceylon tells of 150 trees killed in a few weeks, in a 

 grove of 7 J acres. 



The porcupine attacks smaller trees and kills them 

 in the same manner. Trees one and a half to two and 

 a half years old are in greatest danger from this enemy. 



In the Malay States bears are classed with pigs and 

 rats as dangerous enemies, and the three are said to do 

 more damage than is now done by beetles. In Lower 

 Perak bears recently destroyed more than a thousand 

 trees in one year. 



Of the higher animals the most dangerous to the 

 coco-nut is probably the hog. In the coco-nut regions 



