Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-11-22
FORBIDDEN ANIMALS
THE MONGOOSE Is NOW ON THE
CoUNTRY'S BLACK LIST.
Other Species Which Customs Officers
Will Not Allow to
Enter.

Since the annexation OF Hawaii Porto
Rico and the Philippines to the United
States customs officials in every port Of en-
try in this country have received repeated
and urgent orders to maintain a vigilant
lookout for several varieties Of undesired
birds and quadrupeds.
The alien of the animal kingdom against
which the most rigid exclusion is enforced
Is the mongoose.
Upon no consideration is this unique crea-
ture allowed to land from foreign ports
or even to be shipped from one section of
American territory to another.
To carry this prescription into effect two
cabinet officers are invoking the far-reach-
ing power of their departments. Secretary
Wilson has convinced Secretary Shaw that
the coming Of the mongoose would be as
great a menace to American prosperity as
would be the unrestricted advent Of anar-
chists or paupers. The Secretary of the
Treasury, therefore, working in co-opera-
ton with the Secretary of Agriculture, has
issued the strictest orders to see that no
mongoose is put down alive on American
SOIL
The sweeping character of the order and
the evident determination on the part of
Secretary Wilson and Secretary Shaw to
exact its enforcement have created on the
part of minor officials an eager desire for
information concerning the animal in Ques-
ton.
A number of inquiries have come from
customs officials asking what sort of a
bird the mongoose is, SO that they might
be able instantly to arrest any attempt to
smuggle 1t into the country.
Instructions now have gone forth SO that
officials who thought that the mongoose
was some sort Of a predatory bird shall be
able to identify the quadruped and to I'M
derstand why the government required that
1t should be killed instantly upon arrival.
Should the mongoose get foothold in
the United States said DR.. T. 8. Palmer
Of the biological survey, ut would work
the greatest possible calamity upon the
farming industry Of the country"
The mongoose is a native Of India. The
ichneumon of Egypt, which commends itself
to the inhabitants along the Nile because
Of it's appetite for crocodile eggs, Is a men,
Der Of the same family. In India the mon
goose is held in high esteem, for it is I'M
equaled as devourer of rats. and to ac-
compliSh this purpose is domesticated in
thousands of Hindoo homes.
Moreover, though it Is a small animal, 1t
does not hesitate to attack large and veno-
nous reptiles, invariably causing their
that the mongoose while fighting snakes
chews the root Of the Ophiorhiza mungos
(regarded as an antidote for snake bites),
and that 1t is thus rendered immune.
Scientists, however, say that its success
in contests with snakes is due to it's WON
derful agility.
With Bad Results.
A few years ago the mongoose was i'm
ported into the Island of Jamaica to see
what the animal would do toward the exter-
minatiOn Of sugar-cane rats. The mon
goose multiplies rapidly. Before long the
island numbered thousands of them Rats
were practically exterminated, but never
theless crops were found to be ravaged.
Like conditions obtained in Porto Rico and
in the Hawaiian Islands, where the mon
goose has been tried as an experiment Not
long ago, therefore, the United States gov
eminent sent scientists to investigate. 1t
has been found that the mongoose includes
in its work Of determination the birds that
live on crop-destroying insects.
'The result Is" said DR.. Palmer, that
the devastation to crops caused by insect
pests in some sections of these islands
where no birds survived has been almost
complete"
The mongoose lives in holes in the ground
and is nocturnal in its raids. Being quick
and cautious, 1t is extremely difficult to
shoot or trap It.
Recently DR.. F1exner. the eminent toxi-
cologist of the University Of Pennsylvania,
imported two mongooses for the purpose of
experimenting upon them with poisonous
snakes. He was confronted by the govern