MONGOOSE.
The Indian mongoose is the great enemy of snakes. Another species eats the eggs of the crocodile.
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 Hyænas. In these the equipment for catching living prey is very weak. Speed and pursuit are not their métier, 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.
Photo by A. S. Rudland & Sons.
MEERKAT.
A small, mainly insectivorous animal, found in South Africa; also called the Suricate.
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 thought to bring their enterprises against other animals to a successful issue, would be more likely to develop intelligence and to improve in brain-power than the great Apes, which find an easy living in the tropical forests, and only seek fruits and vegetables for their 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 any 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 co-operation, 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 defence against enemies. Each for itself is the rule, and even among the less-specialised flesh-eating animals of the other groups it is only the Dog Tribe which seems to understand the principles of association for a common object.