Chapter 24

NATIVE NAMES.--_Mungus_, _Newul_, _Newra_, _Nyul_, Hindi; _Mungli_, Canarese; _Yentawa_, Telegu; _Koral_, Gondi; _Moogatea_, Singhalese.

HABITAT.--India generally and Ceylon, but apparently not in Burmah.

DESCRIPTION.--Light iron grey with a yellowish tint, some more rufous, the hairs being ringed with brown and grey or yellowish-white; muzzle and feet brown; irides light brown.

SIZE.--Head and body, 16 to 20 inches; tail, 14 to 16-1/2 inches.

Jerdon calls this the Madras mungoose, and separates it from the next species, but they are apparently the same. Dr. Anderson prefers the specific name _pallidus_ to either _griseus_ or _Malaccensis_, as _griseus_ originally included an African species, and the latter name is geographically misleading. Hodgson's name _H. nyula_ is objectionable, as _nyul_ or _newul_ is applied by natives to all mungooses generally. Jerdon's Nos. 127 and 128 differ only in colour and size; according to him the lighter and larger, _griseus_, being the Southern India mungoose, and the browner and smaller, _Malaccensis_, the Bengal and the Northern India one. But at Sasseram in Behar, I some years ago obtained a very large specimen of the lighter species, and have lately seen a skin from the North-west Provinces. This animal is familiar to most English residents in the Mofussil; it is, if unmolested, fearless of man, and will, even in its wild state, enter the verandahs and rooms of houses. In one house I know a pair of old ones would not only boldly lift the bamboo chicks and walk in, but in time were accompanied by a young family. When domesticated they are capable of showing as much attachment as a dog. One that I had constantly with me for three years died of grief during a temporary separation, having refused food from the time I left. I got it whilst on active service during the Indian Mutiny, when it was a wee thing, smaller than a rat. It travelled with me on horseback in an empty holster, or in a pocket, or up my sleeve; and afterwards, when my duties as a settlement officer took me out into camp, "Pips" was my constant companion. He knew perfectly well when I was going to shoot a bird for him. He would stand up on his hind legs when he saw me present the gun, and rush for the bird when it fell; he had, however, no notion of retrieving, but would scamper off with his prey to devour it at leisure. He was a most fearless little fellow, and once attacked a big greyhound, who beat a retreat. In a rage his body would swell to nearly twice its size from the erection of the hair, yet I had him under such perfect subjection that I had only to hold up my finger to him when he was about to attack anything, and he would desist. I heard a great noise one day outside my room and found Master "Pips," attacking a fine male specimen I had of the great bustard, _Eupodotis Edwardsii_, and had just seized it by the throat. I rescued the bird, but it died of its injuries. Through the carelessness of one of my servants he was lost one day in a heavy brushwood jungle some miles from my camp, and I quite gave up all hopes of recovering my pet. Next day, however, in tracking some antelope, we happened to cross the route taken by my servants, when we heard a familiar little yelp, and down from a tree we were under rushed "Pips." He went to England with me after that, and was the delight of all the sailors on board, for his accomplishments were varied; he could sit on a chair with a cap on his head, shoulder arms; ready, present, fire!--turn somersaults, jump, and do various other little tricks.

From watching him I observed many little habits belonging to these animals. He was excessively clean, and after eating would pick his teeth with his claws in a most absurd manner. I do not know whether a mungoose in a wild state will eat carrion, but he would not touch anything tainted, and, though very fond of freshly-cooked game, would turn up his nose at high partridge or grouse. He was very fond of eggs, and, holding them in his fore-paws, would crack a little hole at the small end, out of which he would suck the contents. He was a very good ratter, and also killed many snakes against which I pitted him. His way seemed to be to tease the snake into darting at him, when, with inconceivable rapidity, he would pounce on the reptile's head. He seemed to know instinctively which were the poisonous ones, and acted with corresponding caution. I tried him once with some sea-snakes (_Hydrophis palamoides_), which are poisonous, but he could get no fight out of them, and crunched their heads off one after the other. I do not believe in the mungoose being proof against snake poison, or in the antidote theory. Their extreme agility prevents their being bitten, and the stiff rigid hair, which is excited at such times, and a thick loose skin, are an additional protection. I think it has been proved that if the poison of a snake is injected into the veins of a mungoose it proves fatal. The female produces from three to four young at a time.

The cry of the mungoose is a grating mew, varied occasionally by a little querulous yelp, which seems to be given in an interrogative sort of way when searching for anything. When angry it growls most audibly for such a small beast, and this is generally accompanied by a bristling of the hair, especially of the tail.

NO. 237. HERPESTES JERDONI _vel_ MONTICOLUS. _The Long-tailed Mungoose_ (_Jerdon's No. 129_).

HABITAT.--Indian peninsula, it having been found in the extreme south as well as Kashmir in the north and Singbhoom in the centre.

DESCRIPTION.--Colour like the last, but more yellow in general tone; tail long, tipped with maroon and black, very hairy; feet dark reddish-brown; muzzle slightly tinged with red; under fur pale yellowish, the long hairs being broadly tipped with brown, darkest at the tip, paler at the base, then a white band; then three brown bands separated by white, the base of the hair being broadly white; the skull is distinguishable by the breadth of the frontal region across the post-orbital processes, and between the anterior margins of the orbit. Dr. Anderson considers this as identical with the Kashmir _H. thysanurus_, which has also been found by Mr. Ball in Singbhoom. Dr. Gray says it is very like the African _H. ichneumon_, only paler. Dr. Jerdon had only obtained it from the Eastern Ghats inland from Nellore, where it inhabits forests among the hills.

SIZE.--Head and body, 20 inches; tail, 19 inches.

NO. 238. HERPESTES SMITHII. _The Ruddy Mungoose_ (_Jerdon's No. 130_).

NATIVE NAME.--_Deeto_, Singhalese.

HABITAT.--Southern India and Ceylon.

DESCRIPTION.--Reddish ferruginous brown, long hair, well grizzled, more red on the head and outer part Of limbs; hairs annulated dark and white, with reddish tips; muzzle long and flesh-coloured; feet black; tip of tail black.

SIZE.--Head and body, 15 inches; tail, 12 to 13 inches.

This is the same as _H. Ellioti_ of Blyth, and _H. rubiginosus_ of Kellaart, and _Calictis Smithii_ of Gray.

NO. 239. HERPESTES AUROPUNCTATUS. _The Gold-speckled Mungoose_ (_Jerdon's No. 131_).

HABITAT.--The plains near the hills from Afghanistan to Bengal, also Assam and Burmah, and on into the Malayan peninsula.

DESCRIPTION.--General colour olive brown with a golden hue, or finely speckled with golden yellow, due to the fine annulation of the hair; the sides of the body slightly paler, and not so yellow; under parts dirty yellowish-white; limbs the same colour as the body; the under fur is purplish-brown in its lower two-thirds, and pale yellow in its terminal third; the long hair is smooth, fine, short, and adpressed; the tips are dark brown, then yellow, then brown, twice repeated; occasionally a yellow band at the base; in the tail there are generally eight bands, with the terminal dark brown; the skull is remarkable for the narrow and elongated character of its facial portion; the orbit is perfect in the adult. Length of skull about 1-5/12 inches; width at the zygoma, 1-1/4.

SIZE.--Head and body, 12 to 13 inches; tail, 9 to 10 inches.

This and _H. persicus_ are the smallest of the genus; it is included in Gray's genus _Calogale_, and he gives the specific name followed by Jerdon, _Nipalensis_, which is geographically misleading. I have therefore followed Dr. Anderson in retaining the more appropriate title. _H. persicus_ is closely allied, but the nasal portion of the palate is narrower.

NO. 240. HERPESTES FUSCUS. _The Nilgherry Brown Mungoose_ (_Jerdon's No. 132_).

HABITAT.--Madras Presidency, Neilgherries.

DESCRIPTION.--General colour, brown; hair ringed black and yellow, tawny at the base; throat dusky yellowish.--_Jerdon_.

SIZE.--Head and body, 18 inches; tail, with hair, 17 inches.

NO. 241. HERPESTES (ONYCHOGALE _of Gray_) MACCARTHIAE.

HABITAT.--Ceylon.

DESCRIPTION.--Reddish-brown; elongate, flaccid, pale brown, with a broad thick sub-terminal band and a long whitish-brown tip; fur of hands and face shorter; feet blackish brown; hair white-tipped; tail redder; hair elongate, one coloured red; ears rounded, hairy.--_Gray_.

NO. 242. HERPESTES FERRUGINEUS.

HABITAT.--Sind.

DESCRIPTION.--Resembles rufous specimens of _H. pallidus_, but the skull shows differences in the greater breadth of the post-orbital contraction of the frontals, and a shorter, broader muzzle, more particularly with posterior or nasal part of the palate.

* * * * *

The next species, which is included in Gray's genus _Taeniogale_, has the bony orbit always perfect, and the molars are 6--6/7--7.

NO. 243. HERPESTES VITTICOLLIS. _The Stripe-necked Mungoose_ (_Jerdon's No. 133_).

NATIVE NAME.--_Loco-moogatea_, Singhalese.

HABITAT.--Southern India, Ceylon, Burmah?

DESCRIPTION.--Grizzled grey, more or less ferruginous, especially on the rump and tail; a dark stripe from the ear to the shoulder; tail rufous black at the tip; skull characteristics: large, with flattened and expanded frontal region, projected narrow muzzle and powerful teeth, larger than other Asiatic _Herpestes_, the last molar being proportionately greater.

SIZE.--Head and body 21 inches; tail 15 inches.

I have put Burmah in the list of places where this mungoose is found, having lately been shown by Mr. Davison the skin of a stripe-necked mungoose obtained by him in Burmah, which seemed to be of this species.

* * * * *

The next has been formed into a separate genus, _Urva_; the teeth are blunter than in _Herpestes_.

NO. 244. URVA CANCRIVORA. _The Crab-eating Mungoose_ (_Jerdon's No. 134_).

HABITAT.--South-east Himalayas, Assam, and Burmah.

DESCRIPTION.--"General colour fulvous iron-grey, inner fur woolly, outer of long straggling lax hairs, generally ringed with black, white, and fulvous; in some the coat has a variegated aspect; in others a uniform tawny tint prevails, and in a few dark rusty brown mixed with grey is the prevalent hue; abdomen brown; limbs blackish-brown; a white stripe on either side of the neck from the ear to the shoulder; tail rufous or brown, with the terminal half rufous" (_Jerdon_). Gray's account is: "black grizzled hairs with a very broad white sub-terminal ring; a white streak on the side of the neck; legs and feet black; tail ashy red at the end."

SIZE.--Head and body, 18 inches; tail, 11 inches.

Somewhat aquatic in its habits, living on frogs and crabs. It has two anal glands, from which it can squirt a foetid secretion. It is the only mungoose mentioned in Blyth's 'Catalogue of the Mammals of Burmah,' but there are at least two more, and probably some of the Malayan species are yet to be found in Tenasserim.

CYNOIDEA.

This is the next and last section in the order I have adopted, of the land Carnivora, and contains the typical family _Canis_. All the animals that we shall have to deal with might and would be by some authors brought into this one genus, the only others recognised by them being the two African genera, _Megalotis_ and _Lycaon_, the long-eared fox and the hyaena-dog, and the _Nyctereutes_ or racoon-dog of Northern China and Amoorland. But although all our Indian species might be treated of under the one genus _Canis_, it will be better to keep to the separation adopted by Jerdon, and classify the wolves and jackals under _Canis_, and the foxes under _Vulpes_. As regards the wild dog of India, its dentition might warrant its being placed in a separate genus, but after all the name chosen for it is but merely a difference in sound, the two being the same thing in Latin and Greek.

But although this group contains the smallest number of forms, the varieties of the domestic dog are endless, and no part of the world is without a species of the genus, except certain islands, such as the West Indies, Madagascar, the Polynesian isles, New Zealand and the Malayan archipelago; in these territories there is no indigenous dog. I speak of dogs in its broad sense of _Canis_, including wolves and foxes.

The proper position of the _Cynoidea_ should be between the bears and the cats, as in their dentition they approximate to the former, and in their digitigrade character to the latter; but, with a view to make this work concurrent with that of Jerdon's, I have accepted the position assigned by him, though it be a little out of place.

The general form of the skeleton of a dog resembles that of a feline, though the limbs may be to a certain extent longer; they also walk on the tips of their toes, but their claws are not retractile, although the ligament by which the process of retraction in the cat is effected is present in a rudimentary form, but is permanently overpowered by the greater flexor muscles. A dog's paw is therefore by no means such a wonderful piece of mechanism and example of power as that of the cat, but is feeble in comparison, and is never used as a weapon of offence, as in the case of felines, the prey being always seized by the teeth.

The skull partakes of the characteristics of both cat and bear. It departs from the simple cutting dentition of the former by the addition of two tuberculated molars in each upper jaw, or one more than the rudimentary molar in the cat, whilst the lower jaw has two extra molars on each side; the premolars are also in excess, being four in number on each side of the upper and lower jaws, whereas in the feline there are three above and two below.

There is also a difference in the lower carnassial or first molar, which impinges on the upper carnassial or fourth premolar; it has a protuberance behind, termed the heel, which is prominently marked, but it is in the molars in which the greatest deviation from the specially carnivorous dentition occurs. The incisors are somewhat larger than, but the canines and premolars approximate to, those of the felines; the crown of the incisors is cuspidate, and the premolars increase gradually in size, with the exception of the fourth in the upper jaw, the carnassial, which is treble the size of the one next to it.

But it is in the molars that we find the similarity to the semi-herbivorous bears. The last two molars on each side of the upper and lower jaws are true grinders, divided into four cusps, which suits the dog to a mixed diet.

Of course the increased number of teeth (the dog has forty-two against thirty of the cat) necessitates a prolonged muzzle, and therefore the skull has more of the bear than the cat shape. The nasal bones are long, the zygomatic arch smaller, but it has the ear-bulb or _bulla tympani_, so conspicuous in the cat and wanting in the bear, yet the character of the aperture of the ear or _auditory meatus_ approaches that of the latter, as the margins of its outer aperture are somewhat prolonged into a short tube or spout, instead of being flush, as in the felines. Then the bony clamp or par-occipital process, which in the cats is fixed against the hinder end of the bulla, is in the dogs separated by a decided groove.

The intestinal peculiarities of this section consist of a very large caecum or blind gut, which is small in the cats and wholly absent in the bears, and in the very long intestines. Some have a sub-caudal gland secreting a pungent whey-like matter.

_GENUS CANIS--THE DOG_.

Muzzle obtuse; tail short; no caudal gland.

Dental formula: inc., 6/6; can., 1--1/1--1; premolar, 4--4/4--4; molar, 2--2/3--3.

This genus contains the wolf and the jackal, as well as the dog proper.

The origin of the domestic dog (_Canis familiaris_) is involved in obscurity; it is mentioned in its domestic state and in an infinity of varieties in records of remote ages. Job talks of "the dogs of my flock," and in the Assyrian monuments, as far back as 3400 years before Christ, various forms are represented; and in Egypt not only representations of known varieties, easy to be recognised, are found, but numerous mummies have been exhumed, the animal having been held in special veneration. There is a preponderance of opinion strongly in favour of the theory that the domestic dog sprang from the wolf, and much argument has been advanced in support of this idea. The principal objection made to this by those who hold opposite views is the fact that no dog in a wild state barks, but only howls.

Now for the evidence adduced in support of the former assertion; some domesticated species of dog closely resembling the wild wolf.

Sir John Richardson says of the Eskimo dog that it is not only extremely like the North American wolf (_Canis lupus_), both in form, colour, and nearly in size, but that the howl of both animals "is prolonged so exactly in the same key that even the practised ear of an Indian fails at times to discriminate them." He adds of the dog of the Hare Indians, a distinct breed, that it is almost the same as the prairie wolf (_Canis latrans_), the skull of the dog appeared to him a little smaller, otherwise he could detect no difference in form, nor fineness of fur, nor the arrangement of spots of colour.

Professor Kitchen Parker writes: "Another observer remarks that, except in the matter of barking, there is no difference whatever between the black wolf-dog of the Indians of Florida and the wolves of the same country. The dogs also breed readily with the wild animals they so closely resemble. The Indians often cross their dogs with wolves to improve the breed, and in South America the same process is resorted to between the domesticated and the wild dogs." He then goes on to allude to many varieties of dogs closely resembling wolves--the shepherd dog of Hungary, which is so like that a Hungarian has been known to mistake a wolf for one of his own dogs. Some Indian pariahs, and some dogs of Egypt, both now and in the condition of mummies, closely resemble the wolf of their country. The domestic dogs of Nubia and certain mummified forms are closely related to jackals. The Bosjesman's dog is very like the black-backed jackal (_Canis mesomelas_). Domestic dogs which have run wild do in some measure, though not entirely, revert to the wolf type. The dingo of Australia is thought to be derived from some imported variety of dog. The wolf is easily tamed, and even in its wild state has some of the peculiarities of the dog; for instance, a young wolf, when surprised and threatened by the hunter, will crouch and fawn like a spaniel. Mr. Bell tells of a she-wolf in the Regent's Park Zoological Gardens which would bring her cubs to the bars of the cage, that they might be caressed by the visitors; and there is a most interesting account, too long for insertion here, in the third volume of the old _India Sporting Review_ (new series) chiefly taken from Major Lloyd's 'Scandinavian Adventures,' of the tameability of wolves, giving an instance of two cubs out of a litter of three becoming as faithfully attached as any dog. The period of gestation (sixty-three days) is the same in both animals, and they will interbreed freely, the progeny being also fertile. There only now remains the question of the bark, which, singularly enough, is peculiar to the domesticated dog only, and may have arisen in imitation of the gruffer tones of the human voice. The domestic dog run wild will in a few generations lose the power of barking. This happened on the island of Juan Fernandez; the dogs left there quite lost their bark in thirty-three years, and it is said that a few caught and removed after that period reacquired it very slowly. We may then, I think, accept Darwin's opinion that "it is highly probable that the domestic dogs of the world have descended from two good species of wolf (_C. lupus_ and _C. latrans_), and from two or three other doubtful species of wolves (namely, the European, Indian, and North African forms), from at least one or two South American canine species, and from several races or species of the jackal."

NO. 245. CANIS PALLIPES. _The Indian Wolf_ (_Jerdon's No. 135_).

NATIVE NAMES.--_Bheria_, _Bhera_, North and Central India; _Landagh_, South India; _Nekra_, in some parts; _Bighana_, _Hunder_, or _Hurar_, in Bundelkund; _Tola_, Canarese; _Toralu_, Telegu.

HABITAT.--Throughout the whole of India, though Hodgson says he has not found it in the Himalayas, nor can I find any notice of it in Burmah, and it is likewise absent in Ceylon.

DESCRIPTION.--"Hoary fulvous or dirty reddish-white, some of the hairs tipped with black, which gives it a grizzled appearance; somewhat reddish on the face and limbs, the latter paler than the body; lower parts dingy white; tail thinly bushy, slightly black-tipped; ears rather small" (_Jerdon_). But, as a matter of fact, wolves vary greatly in colour. Every one who has seen much of them will bear testimony to this. Sir Walter Elliot says: "Several adults that I shot differed in their colours and general character." The late Brigadier-General McMaster, in his notes on Jerdon, wrote: "Wolves vary a good deal in colour and length of hair, probably with season and climate. I have seen some of light reddish-grey, and others much darker than any jackal;" and he speaks of another "nearly as red as an Irish setter."

SIZE.--Head and body, about 3 feet; tail, 16 to 18 inches; height at shoulder, 26 inches.

The Indian wolf is somewhat inferior in size to the European one, and is probably less ferocious, or at all events its ferocity is not called out by the severity of the climate, as in the case of _C. lupus_. We never hear of them attacking bodies of men and overwhelming them by numbers. In 1812 twenty-four French soldiers were surrounded by an immense troop of wolves; and though, it is said, the men killed two or three hundred of their assailants, they had to succumb at last to numbers, and were all devoured. This was doubtless an extreme case, but in the severe winters of the north, when these animals band together and roam abroad in search of food, they will attack anything that comes in their way, although a single wolf will hardly ever dare to meddle with a man.

In India one seldom hears of their attacking grown-up men. I remember an instance in which an old woman was a victim; but hundreds of children are carried off annually, especially in Central India and the North-west provinces.