Hønsetyve paa St. Croix. (Efterskrift til Politivennen)

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Like everything else, everyone had some fault to find, and I was told that these animals would destroy every head of poultry in  the island; and there are hundreds of peasants who speak of the destruction of poultry as due to these animals, who never saw one take a chicken, if, indeed, | they ever saw a mongoose at all. As an instance of this I may give the following dialogue between one of my native labourers and myself: -

Native - Hi! Massa, dem mongoose nyam all do chicken and all de egg and all de fowl, - dem is bad ting; what for you go bring such a trouble 'pon we. Dem is a trickily thing; dem like chicken of a sizeable age, better than when dem just hatch. Ow! them is bad for true.

Self-Richard, if you catch a mongooso in the act ot eating your sizeable chickens I will givo you £i. How do you know it is the mongoose, and not thieves, dogs, cats, snakes, rats, hawks, owls, and John Crows (Turkey hussards), that eat your chickens?

Native - Hi, Massa, a friend of mine live next door tell me he see da mongoose catch the cbieken. 'Tis true me never see him do it myself.

Self - Well, you watch your chicken for two or three nights, and don't tell anyone you are going to do so; tell everybody it is the mongoose. When you catch what eats your chickens you come to me.

Native - Very well, massa; good bye. 

A few days elapsed, and I saw Richard and said to him, "Well have you caught the mongoose?" He said to me. "Yes, Massa; but it is a two foot mongoose?" "I catch de very man who tell me - tis mongoose de very night I see you; and when I find him such a tief and a liar, I feel ashamed to come and tell you." And so it is in 99 out of a hundred alleged mongoose-thefts! In proof of this, I may ask how is it that I now have more poultry than I ever had, when there are dozens of mongooses all round my house. Why is it that poultry are cheaper in India, the land of mongooses, than in Jamaica? To those who suffer from the ravages of rats, I can give a valuable hint by advising them to get, no matter at what cost, a few pairs of mongooses.

I am, Sir,

Your obedient Servant,

W. Bancroft Espect.

(St. Croix Avis 3. november 1877. Uddrag)

Den lille indiske manguster blev i slutningen af 1800-tallet indført til de caribiske øer med det formål at spise rotter på sukkerrørsplantagerne. Meget snart viste den sig at gå løs på fjerkræet og den lokale fauna, endog skade kreaturer. I nyere tid har den været med til at sprede sygdomme, såsom fx rabies. Dyret anses for at være et af de værste invasive dyr. Forsøg på at begrænse bestanden har vist sig forgæves.