40 
LOWER MAMMAL GALLERY. 
birds and eggs, or on A'ogetable food, such as rice and £rnit. I n 
Africa they are replaced by the allied genus, JS\incTima (468. 
[Cage 21.] 4B9). The Mongooses, IJerpestes (483 to 503) _&c., of Africa and 
India, have naked soles, and long, straight, non-retractile claws.- 
They feed on reptiles and birds, rats and mice, eggs, &c., -and 
arc often domesticated for the purpose of clearing houses of 
vermin. They are most useful in destroying poisonous snakes,, 
whose bites they avoid by their wonderful watchfulness and 
agility, the stories of their having recourse to some plant as an 
antidote to the snake’s poison being entirely without foundation. 
There are about 30 species of Mongoose known. Of these 
the most noticeable are the Egyptian Mongoose, Ilerpcstes 
ielinenmon (499), which is found also in Spain, and feeds largely 
on the eggs and young of the crocodile ; and the Indian 
Mongoose, II. mangos (498) , the species tamed in India. Many 
of the African Mongooses are referred to separate genei-fi,. 
among the best-known being the Kusimanses, Crossarclius (491, 
492), of which one species is banded, and the Meerkat, Simcata 
(488), the latter being easily tamed. 
More or less nearly allied to the Mongooses are several 
peculiar species from Madagascar, among which may be 
specially mentioned Eupl eves goad oti (483), exhibited in case 21,. 
which obtains the beetles and worms on which it lives by 
burrowing in the earth with its elongated snout. Its teeth are 
so reduced in size as to resemble those of the Insectivora. 
The Maned Jackal, or Aard-Wolf of the Dutch Boers of 
South Africa, Froteles cristafas (505), of which there are 
specimens in case 21, looks like a diminutive Hyaena, but has 
very feeble teeth, as it lives nearly entirely on decomposing" 
carcases, and on termites or white ants, which its strong claws 
enable it to dig out of their nests. It is found throughout 
Africa, from Abyssinia and Somaliland to the Cape. The molar 
teeth are almost rudimentary, and the skull (fig. 23) has no 
strong ridges or crests. By some naturalists this animal is 
taken to indicate a separate family ; but by others it is included 
in the Ilycvnulce. 
[Case 21.] The family Ilgcmidce comprises the Hysenas (case 21), of 
w'hich there are three well-marked living species, Ilycena striata 
(506) and IL hrinmea, the Striped and Brown Hyaenas, and 
