192 



Till; MEERKAT. 



generally carries the food into the most secluded hiding-place that it can find, and then com- 

 mences its meal in solitude and darkness. The color of the Moongus is a gray liberally frecked 

 with darker hairs, so as to produce a very pleasing mixture of tints. It is not so large an 

 animal as its Egyptian relative. 



THJi MOONOnS. Herpe4ts giiteu*. 



THE grizzled markings upon the fur of the NYULA are of a singularly beautiful character, 

 and form a closely set zigzag pattern over the entire surface of the head, body, and limbs. 



The pattern is very like that which is seen in some woven fabrics, or fine basket-work. 

 Upon the back and body this pattern is tolerably large, but upon the head it becomes grad- 

 ually smaller, and upon the upper portion of the nose is almost microscopically small, though 

 as perfect and uniform as that upon the body, so that it is among the most elegantly colored 

 examples of the Ichneumons. The paws are dark, and devoid of that pretty variegation which 

 extends over the upper surface of the animal. 



The word Ichneumon is Greek, and literally signifies a "tracker." 



.MEERKAT.-eVic/w 



VERY CLOSELY allied to the Ichneumon, but differing from it in several points, the 

 MEERKAT has been placed in the same genus with that animal by Cuvier and others, but has 

 been separated by later naturalists, because there are only four toes on the hinder feet, and the 



