Many descriptions of the encounters between these brave little animals and the cobra have been written. Here is one of the 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 behaviour 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 made his body appear twice as large as it really was, he would approach the cobra on tip-toe, 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 us 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. One 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 his body with great gusto. Our little favourite killed a great many cobras, and, so far as I could see, never was bitten."
Photo by L. Medland, F.Z.S.] [North Finchley.
TWO-SPOTTED PALM-CIVET.
This is a West African species, which, with an allied form from East Africa, represents the palm-civets in the Dark Continent.
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, of which, like the Indian kind, it is a deadly foe. There are more than twenty other species, most of much the same appearance 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 Abyssinia and West Africa are also allied to them. Their habits are identical with the above.
Photo by L. Medland, F.Z.S.] [North Finchley.
MASKED PALM-CIVET.