3i8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



fifteen or twenty perceptible distinctions could be made, and a place 

 found for every degree of merit and demerit. Because a person does 

 not stand high in our esteem, it does not follow that we are punishing 

 or persecuting him ; the point when punishment in any proper sense 

 could be said to begin would be about the middle of the scale. Mill 

 remarks justly : " If any one displeases us, we may express our distaste 

 and stand aloof from such an one ; but we shall not therefore feel 

 called on to make his life uncomfortable," still less to send him to 

 prison or to the stake. 



A KOGUISH HOUSEHOLD PET. 



By FEANK BUCKLAND. 



AS company for the monkeys and myself, for many years past, I 

 have had a " Jemmy." All my Suricates I call " Jemrays." The 

 Latin name is Suricata Zenich. Jemmy is a very pretty little beast, 

 somewhat like a small mongoose or very large rat. His head is as like 

 the head of a hedgehog as can be imagined. His color is light brown, 

 with darker strijje down the sides. He is an African animal, and 

 lives in burrows on the plains, whence he is sometimes called the Afri- 

 can prairie-dog, or the meercatze. Captain Adams tells me that, when 

 in South Africa, he has frequently come across a camj) of Jemmys. 

 The plain will appear covered with them, sitting up motionless like so 

 many ninepins ; at the least notice, they simultaneously and in an in- 

 stant disappear down their holes. 



SuRicATE {Suricata Zenick). 



I would like now to say something of the habits of this pretty little 

 fellow, which was kindly given to me by Mr. Forbes Nixon. Jemmy 

 the Third (for I have previously had two Jemmys) was allowed the 

 free range of the whole house. He was full of curiosity and restless- 



