The universal favorite is one of the largest, the head and body being from 15 to 18 inches long, and the tail 14 inches. The fur is loose and long, and capable of being erected. As in all the tribe, the tint is a "pepper and salt", the "pepper" color bing sometimes blackish and sometimes red, but a speckled appearance characteristics the whole group. This is the animal supposed to be immune from snake-bite. It is possibly so to some extent, for it kills and eats the poisonous snakes, and it is now known that the eating of snake-poison tends to give the same protection as inoculation does against certain diseases. But it certain that in most cases the mongoose, by its activity, and by setting up the hair on its body, which makes the snake "strike short", saves itself from being bitten.
Many descriptions of the encounters between these little brave animals and the cobra have been written. Here is one less known: "One of our officers had a tame mongoose, a charming little pet. Whenever we could procure a cobra- and we had many opportunities- we used to turn it out in an empty storeroom, which had a window at some height from the ground, so that it was perfectly safe to stand there and look on. The cobra, when dropped from the bag or basket, would wriggle into one of the corners of the room and there coil himself up. The mongoose showed the greatest excitement on being brought to the window, and the moment he was let loose would eagerly jump down into the room, when his behavior became very curious and interesting. He would instantly see where the snake was, and rounding his back, and making every hair on his body stand out at right angles, which makes his body appearance twice as large as it really was, he would approach the cobra on tiptoe, making a peculiar humming noise. The snake, in the meantime, would show signs of great anxiety, and I fancy of fear, erecting his head and hood ready to strike when his enemy came near enough. The mongoose kept running backwards and forwards in front of the snake, gradually getting to within what appeared to be striking distance. The snake would strike at him repeatedly, and appeared to hit him, but the mongoose continued his comic dance, apparently unconcerned. Suddenly, and with a movement so rapid that the eye could not follow it, he would pin the cobra by the back of the head. On could hear the sharp teeth crunch into the skull, and, when all was over, see the mongoose eating the snake's head and part of the body with great gusto. Our little favorite killed a great many cobras, and, so far as I can see, never was bitten.
The EGYPTIAN MONGOOSE, or ICHNEUMON, has an equally great reputation for eating the eggs of the crocodile; and the KAFFIR MONGOOSE, a rather larger South African species, is kept as a domestic animal to kill rats, mice and snakes, o which, like the Indian kind, it is a deadly foe. There are more than twenty other species, most of much the same appearances and habits.
The smooth-nosed mongoose tribe are closely allied creatures in South Africa, mainly burrowing animals, feeding both on flesh and fruit. The CUSIMANSES of Abyssinian and West Africa are also allied to them. Their habits are identical with the above.
MEERKATS, OR SURICATES
Most people who have read Frank Buckland's life will remember the suricate which was his chief pet in Albany Street. The SURICATES, or MEERKATS, burrow all over the South African veldt, especially in the sandy parts, where they sit up outside their holes like prairie dogs and are seen by day. They are sociable animals, and make most amusing pets. A full-grown one is not much larger than a hedgehog, but more slender. It barks like a prairie-dog, and has many other noises of pleasure and anger. A lady, the owner of one, writes in Country Life: " It gets on well with the dogs and cats, especially the latter, as they are more friendly to her, allow her to sleep by their side and on top of them. One old cat brings small birds to her (her favorite is a sparrow), and makes her usual cry, and Janet runs to her and carries off the bird, which she eats, feather and all, in a very few minutes, if she is hungry." When near a farm, the meerkats will devour eggs and young chickens. They are also said to eat the eggs of the large leopard-tortoise. The commonest is the SLENDER-TAILED MEERKAT. It is found all over South Africa, and is very common in the Karroo. It eats insects and grubs as well as small animals, and is commonly kept a s a pet throughout the Colony.
The highest form of specialization in the group Carnivora is the delicate mechanism by which the chief of weapons of offense, the claws, are enabled to keep their razor edge by being drawn up into sheaths when the animal walks, but can be instantly thrust out at pleasure, rigid and sharp as sword-blades. The gradual process by which this equipment deteriorates in the Civets and disappears in the Mongoose should be noted. There are many other carnivora, but none so formidable as those possessing the retractile claws. Thus the Bears, though often larger in bulk than the Lion, are far inferior in the power of inflicting violent injury. At the same time such delicate mechanism is clearly not necessary for the well-being of a species. The members of the Weasel Tribe are quite as well able to take care of themselves as the small cats, though they have non-retractile and not very formidable claws.
Such a very abnormal animal as the BINTURONG- of which we are able to give an excellent photograph- is doubtless rightly assigned to the place in which modern science has placed it. But it will be found that there are several very anomalous forms quite as detached from any general type as is the binturong. Nature does not make species on any strictly graduated scale. Many of these nondescript animals are so unlike any other group or family that they seem almost freaks of nature. The binturong is certainly one of these.
The next group with which we deal is that of the Hyenas. In these the equipment for catching living prey is very weak. Speed and pursuit are not their metier, but the eating of dead and decaying animal matter, and the consumption of bones. Hence the jaws and teeth are highly developed, while the rest of the body is degenerate.
The question of the comparative intelligence of the Apes and Monkeys, and the carnivorous animals subsequently described in these pages, is an interesting one. It would seem at first as if the Cat Tribe and their relations, which have to obtain their prey by constant hunting, and often to make use of considerable reflection and though to bring their enterprises against other animals to a successful issue, would be more likely to develop intelligence to improve in brain-power than the great Apes, which find an easy living in the tropical forests, and only seeks fruits and vegetables for the food. Yet it is quite certain that this is not the case. The Cat Tribe, with the exception of the domesticated cats, does not show high intelligence. Even the latter are seldom trained to obey man, though they learn to accommodate themselves to his ways of life. There is no evidence that cats have an sense of number, or that any of them in a wild state make any effort to provide shelter for themselves or construct a refuge from their enemies, though the leopard will make use of a cave as a lair. In matters requiring intelligence and cooperation, such rodents as the beaver, or even the Squirrel, are far beyond the feline carnivora in sagacity and acquired or inherited ingenuity. except the Stoat, which sometimes hunts in packs, no species of the carnivora yet dealt with in this work combines to hunt its prey, or for defense against enemies. Each for itself is the rule, and even among the less-specialized flesh-eating animals of the groups it is only the Dog Tribe which seems to understand the principles of association for a common object.
