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Appendix D.
RECIPE FOR THE USE OF SCILLA MARITIMA AS ADVOCATED BY THE
MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE.
SCILLA MARITIMA PREPARATION.
A well-known Continental way of destroying rodents is to bake a pancake—egg pancake not
essential, but beef dripping advisable—to whicb 20 per cent, of finely chopped Scilla Maritima, red
variety, is added, either to the batter before frying, which is simpler, or placed between two layers
of pancake after frying. When cold the pancake should be cut into pieces of abouT ½ inch square
and laid in the rat runs or holes.
Rats are particularly susceptible to the effects of Scilla Maritima (Squills).
If squills in the bulbous form is not obtainable, a solution of squills is manufactured by
amongst others, Haller and Company, 325, Borough High Street, S.E. 1, who can give information
as to its application in the liquid state.
Appendix E.
THE MONGOOSE OR ICHNEUMON.
Contributed by G. Jennison, Esq., Zoological Gardens, Manchester.
The mongoose has a very large range over the warmer parts of India, Egypt and Africa
generally and varies in size from the Egyptian, which weighs almost as much as a cat, to the
Indian which is usually about the size of a large rat, and can therefore follow the rodents into their
holes. They are all of a brownish colour, sharp-nosed, exceedingly quick in their movements, yet
withal susceptible of being tamed. The Egvptian variety was and, I believe, still is domesticated to
serve the purpose of a cat. The Indian—''Herpestes griseus "—with which alone we need concern
ourselves, is the Rikki-Tikki of Kipling —the soldiers' pet of most Indian battalions.
It is very abundant, and for a regular trade should be obtainable in London at £1 a head.
Exceedingly courageous and bloodthirty, it will catch and kill all kinds of small mammals and birds,
and even poultry, so that it cannot be used against rats in country districts. Its vaiue as a rat
destroyer was first discovered in the West Indies, where nine were introduced in 1872 to help in the
struggle against the rodents in the sugar plantations—they multiplied exceedingly, and were so
efficacious that in ten years they were saving £200,000 a year to the planters. Their success was
their discomfiture, the rats, driven by persecution, became arboreal—the mongoose, unable to follow
them, turned upon the poultry and in their turn have become a pest. The West Indian experiment
introduced them to England. About 1894 a prize of £20 was offered by a Manchester newspaper
for the best method of clearing warehouses of rats—one competitor suggested the mongoose, and on
a favourable report from the Zoological Gardens, Belle Vue, Manchester, he received the prize, and
Mr. Cross, Naturalist, Liverpool, was inundated with enquiries for the beast, which was at once •
extensively employed and is still in demand tor the purpose. To newspaper enquiries, would the
mongoose do what was required and could it be easily kept we replied that we had used the