The record-union., 1899-04-27
THE MONGoosE.
Has Made the West Indian Rats
Nest in Trees.

llldt lSlan0, says Ifldt the uloIlSUOSS u
at present found all over Porto Rico
| from one end Of the island to the other,
| from the sugar plantations along TIE
coast to the tops of the mountains OF
the interior but is more abundant IL
the lowlands The ANIMALS native
| home is in India, where he has a great
| reputation as killer of snakes, and
especially the cobra. He was brought
by some enterprising individual from
India to Jamaica for the purpose of
killing off the rats that caused great
| injury to the sugar cane. About 1871
a sugar planter in Porto Rico, who also
was troubled by rats. conceived the idea
of bringing the mongoose into that isl
| and. On all of the plantations NUM-
| Der of dogs and men We're kept busy
| killing rats Sometimes hundreds of
dollars of damage would be done to the
cane in a single night. The rats
gnawed into it just above the ground
so that fermentation would set in and
the cane would topple over and be
ruined
| Latimer & Co. undertook the intr.'-
duction of the mongoose. They brought
over three or four pairs from Jamaica,
and arranged to keep them in captivity
on an estate a short distance outside of
San Juan. They intended to breed
them until they had multiplied and then
release them. 1t was not long, how
ever, before the little animals found tie
door to their cage carelessly left open
and escaped from the inclosure- They
multiplied very rapidly, and in the
course of few years they were plen-
tiful in that section. They have since
spread over the entire island.
The traveller nowadays sees them fire.
quently gliding across the road from
! the hedge on one side into that on the
other. 1t is customary to use for
fences the ordinary barbed wire,
stretched on posts, and beside it to plant
a species of brumillia, which has stiff
! leaves three inches wide and about four
to five feet long, with keen hooks half
an inch or more in length thichly dis
tributed over the outer edge, with treir
points sticking toward the top of the
leaf AS each plant has from twe"iy
| to forty leaves growing UP somawh1t
like century plant and as they soon
multiply and additional plants spring up
until the hedge becomes from fifteen 20
forty feet WIDE it can readily be seen
! that it makes a most complete barrier
and at the same time the finest of COW
ers for the mongoose. It is practically
impossible to drive it out or in any way
eXterminate it.
The sugar planters seem to be fairly
we'll satisfied with the result of the n
| PRODUCTION of the mongoose, and say
that it has reduced the number of rats
so that now they do comparatively ut
| tie damage But most of the other
people of the island, especially the Pc =
and those engaged in raising poultry
are unqualified in their condemnation of
the mongoose.
The. rats have adapted themselves to
the new element that has been brought
into the contest for life, and now build
| their nests in the trees. They prefer
the cocoanut palm when it can be had,
and in many places the trunks of these
trees have been encircled by wide
band of tin or sheet-iron. which pre-
vents the rats from climbing. Rats
| also live to some extent in other trees,
especially in the royal palm, and occa-
sionally in the matched roofs of build
ings.
| The closest relative to the mongoose
| we have in the United States is the
weazel The mongoose is about twenty
inches long, of which a little less than
/ half is tail; has rather short legs, a
nose a little more pointed than that OF
the weasel and is covered with a thick
coat of coarse, rusty gray hair. 1t is
! called by the people of Porto Rico an
ardilla, which is the name given in
Mexico and the Southwest to the
squirrel. 1t is also known as the mon
costa.
While Introduced for the purpose of
| killing rats, the mongoose has shown
a lively appetite for poultry, and has
become a pest to the natives, nearly all
of whom raise more or less fowls. The
animal eats all kinds of small animals
living on the ground, including spiders,
snakes and lizards The island of Vie
| ques, off the coast of Porto Rico, and
belonging also to the United States, has
| had the mongoose much shorter time,
and the people there say that before the
animal was introduced snakes were
| quite common. Now one is rarely seen.
| On the island of Culebra, close by, there
is no mongoose, and snakes are quite
common
| The snakes of Porto Rico and the adj
| iacent islands include one small boa and
| one or two specimens resembling our
| common garter snake. None of them
are poisonous It may be said that no
poisonous snakes are found in any of
the islands this side of Martinique.
While Porto Rico has an abundance
of big centipedes and some very large
spiders their bites seem to be less pois-
onous than those of the corresponding
species in our own Southwestern States.
There is a small scorpion found there,
however, whose sting is perhaps worse
than the bites of either of the others.
Judging by the habits of its species,
the mongoose lives in nest in the
hedge. although l must say that 1 have
never seen a nest. 1t is probable, how
ever that their nests are lined with
soft grass and material of that kind. /
Wherever there is a crevice on the rocks
conveniently at hand they make their
home. The habits of the mongoose are
similar. to those of the weasel. 1t preyS
mostly at night. 1t is said that in ia
maica the mongoose has SO largely ex-
| terminated the ground birds and other
animals that live on insects that the
ticks have increased in number until
they threaten to cut down the numbers
| of the mongoose. But in Port Rico
there is no sign of the mongoose being
trouble by ticks Yhe pelt of the mon
goose has no commercial value, SO far
as I know. and I could not learn that
they were hunted to any extent. 1t
may be that the natives who have suf-
fered loss of chickens through the Wis
| its of the mongooSe retaliate by hunt
| ing them I am not aware that there
is any law in Porto Rico prohibiting the
killing of the mongoose.-W ashlngtcn