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Mungoos and Cobra.

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mungoos was mostly on the defensive. After a few minutes the cobra was clearly getting fatigued and seemed inclined to make off; but the least movement of his adversary brought him to the scratch again with hood erect, striking out with renewed energy. Yet there was no doubt the snake felt the effect of the long round, and was now, in its turn, on the defensive. For just an instant, he lowered his head, the mungoos dashed in, fastened on his neck, and never let go until he had chawed the spine to pieces. We could hear the crunching going on distinctly, and of course, the cobra went limp at once, and only rolled about helplessly. I do not believe the mungoos was once pricked even, much less did the cobra get a chance of closing his jaws on his enemy, without which a fatal bite could hardly be given. "At all events, next day he was as fit as ever, and ready for another fight. Captain C- suggested that we should tie a handkerchief round him, to impede his movements; and this was managed with some difficulty. The second cobra, not so strong a snake as the first, was turned in with him, and the fight began, with all the chances in the snake's favour. For the first few moments, there was little to choose; but very soon the cobra got fast hold of his enemy for an instant, and immediately afterwards the mungoos began to look dull and flurried. In spite of being evidently wounded, he caught the cobra about the middle of the body and crippled it badly, and, after a turn or two more, finished it off. While my boy pinned the snake down with a stick, we let out the mungoos, on whom the poison was taking effect rapidly, to see what it would do. It did not make any effort to search for anything, according to the generally received belief, though there was plenty of herbage about the compound, but merely moped about, and died in perhaps a quarter of an hour. I cut the hair off with a pair of scissors, and found the wounds near the shoulder. One was rather torn, as if the fang had dragged on the skin. We were all convinced that the agility of the mungoos is his real safeguard. I think it would be safe to back him against the snake—at least the cobra -wherever he had room to make a fair fight of it; but it might

be different with daboia or bungarus. The viperines always impress me with a sense of their superior vigour and determination. The natives here are afraid to catch them for me, whereas I have no difficulty in getting any number of cobras I want. If I can get hold of a daboia, I will repeat the experiment with the mungoos, and let you know the result.”

From these notes it appears conclusive that the animal is not endowed with any protective of a physiological character, and in these instances it did not seek for any antidote. Moreover, artificial inoculation of the mungoos with the virus of various species of snakes has always proved fatal with the symptoms exhibited by all other mammals.

A singular point in some of the members of this family is the structure of the tail. Thus, the Paradoxures receive their name from the peculiarity of a corkscrew-like twist, in that organ possessed by some of them to which no function has been attributed. The binturong, however, possesses a long tail, as prehensile as that of any monkey, which it employs in exactly the same manner.

That singularly aberrant form, the glutton, or wolverine, now confined to Arctic regions, although once spread over temperate Europe, has been credited with supernatural powers of digestion; but it is chiefly interesting for the sagacity it displays in robbing the traps of the hunters of their game, and eluding almost every conceivable device intended for its own destruction. If the accounts given may be taken as trustworthy, it displays as much reflection and ingenuity in springing traps and guns set for it, and then appropriating the bait, as we could expect from any human being fairly acquainted with such mechanical contrivances.

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Another aberrant family is that of the Protelidæ, containing but one representative, viz., the curious South African Aard-wolf" of the Dutch colonists, which possesses anatomical characters in common with the hyænas and civets. On looking at one of these animals, the long fore legs and striped skin give it a distinctly hyæna-like aspect, but the pointed muzzle and

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large ears at once recall the civets, while in its skull and dentition it also resembles them closely. On account of its nocturnal habits and burrowing propensity, it presents little of interest to the student of animal life, the specimen in the Zoological Gardens, for example, being always buried in its straw, and apparently indifferent to whatever may be going on in the outside world.

I shall now make a few remarks upon the lesser cats before proceeding to the families of bears and dogs.

Those who insist on structural points as indicative of special provisions for the benefit of particular animals may be asked to reflect on the anatomy of the eye in the cat family generally. They are, it is admitted, mainly nocturnal, or, at .all events, crepuscular in habit. Yet some possess a permanently expanded round pupil; others a cleft pupil, with highly contractile and extensile powers. Of the former group, the lion, tiger, &c., are examples; of the latter, the cats. The contractile pupil is held to be necessary, or, at least, advantageous to its possessor in excluding the superfluous light of day, in order that, when the light is feeble, the expansion of the organ may compensate, to some extent, the deficiency. Hence we are led to assume the retina to be peculiarly sensitive to light, and this contractile pupil to be the means of regulating the supply. Some writers affirm the lion to be entirely nocturnal when hunting. Be this as it may, both he and the tiger constantly seek for their prey at night; but neither of them is endowed with the form of pupil, accompanied by the sensitive retina, which is understood to be so advantageous to others of the family. Everyone knows that in daylight the vertical slit in a cat's eye is constantly expanding and contracting slightly, and in strong sunlight it is reduced to a mere thin line. But if you put a mousetrap down and let pussy look at the captive in it, you will see the pupils expand as fully as they do in the dark. It is the same under the excitement of fear or anger. My retriever, one day, happened to come suddenly on a cat dozing in a warm corner of a yard. According to his usual custom, he "stood" the cat at the distance of a

few yards, turning his eye up to me with an expression in it which plainly asked, "Shall I hustle her for a bit of fun?" Now, gentle reader, let me, by way of parenthesis, assure you, that I never allow my dogs to worry cats-not only because I have a due regard for the feelings of the cat and its owner, but also a supreme regard for the eyes of my dog. Pussy had assumed the form known as that of the "arch enemy," since there was no escape except by passing the dog, and, though the sun was shining full into her face, the pupils of her eyes were fully expanded and as round as globes. Thus, in certain states of mind, the eye of the cat can not only endure the full light of day, but seems to derive advantage from it. The popular superstition with respect to a cat's ability to "see in the dark" is, of course, unfounded. The great capacity for expansion in the pupil enables the animal to take advantage of a small amount of light which would render no service to an ordinary eye.

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After much search in London, a few years ago, for a quiet abode, I selected a house with gardens" running at right angles to the street, at about fifty yards distance on either side. There was the great advantage of an outlook from the window of my workshop at the back of the house, on luxuriant foliage, patches of green turf, and flower beds. On one side rose a wall covered with ivy, wherein the sparrows in great. numbers carried on their nest-building operations in summer, and roosted during winter. Near by stood a withered acacia tree, in whose branches much courtship went on, and which served, as the days shortened, for clamorous congregations of the birds preparing to go to bed in the ivy. Well content was I with this bit of nature in a populous neighbourhood. In leisure moments it was pleasant to sit at the window, binocular in hand, and watch the mimic struggle for existence" going on among the sparrows-the rivalry of the males, the squabbles for favourite nesting places in the ivy, the scuffles for scraps thrown out in the gardens, and the hair-breadth escapes from the snares of the juvenile fowler and the claws of the domestic cat.

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Not many days had passed over my head in this "location"

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before I became aware that I had taken up my abode near a paradise for cats. Day and night they patrolled the walls of the garden, making the air resound with those mysterious noises which no mortal has ever yet been able to interpret-which may represent either the height of feline felicity or the tortures of a feline Inferno. On human ears the effect is disastrous. Looking out of my window one morning, I beheld, sitting on a wall near the back door of a house, within a very short distance, seventeen cats of every variety of colour. By and by, as I gazed in much astonishment, an old woman came out with a tray of food and distributed it among the expectant multitude. The sleepless nights and unquiet days I passed need not be described. Remonstrance with any person who keeps seventeen cats, and is thus insensible to the comfort of her neighbours, is out of the question. I derived some compensation, however, from abundant opportunities for studying the habits of the cat, when following its own instincts, never before presented to me.

In the first place, then, the cat, when not dozing on the hearthrug, is, to all intents and purposes, a wild animal. Its ferocious character does not seem to have become much modified by contact with man, whom it regards as a relieving officer destined to supply it with food and shelter, and by whom it will, when in a good temper, allow itself to be fondled; going its own way, permitting no control, and expressing scarcely any gratitude for, or even sense of, benefits conferred. It rarely indicates that confidence in man so characteristic of the dog and the horse. We can do next to nothing for it in sickness or when injured, because it resents every attempt to relieve it, and rewards its would-be benefactor by sticking its tenter hooks into his flesh. It cannot learn consideration for animals equally enjoying the protection of its master. The rabbit-hutch or birdcage is certain sooner or later to be invaded by the cat, and the pet of the children to be ruthlessly murdered on the first favourable opportunity, though the intentions of the destroyer have been dissembled until a sense of complete security prevails. One morning, the children come down to feed their pet canary.

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