THE GENET 



Also known as the Musk-kat or Misselyat-kat ; Insimba 

 of Swazis and Zulus (Kirby) ; Inywagi of Amaxosa 

 (Stanford) ; Tshipa of Basutos (Kirby) 



THE Genet is one of the cat family of animals, and 

 in South Africa its nearest relations are the Civets 

 and the Mungooses. 



Genets are nocturnal, except in the more secluded 

 districts, where they may often be surprised during 

 the daytime in the act of hunting for prey in the 

 shades of the forest or in secluded gloomy kloofs. 



Their favourite haunts are the bush-veld, scrub- 

 covered hillsides, kloofs, and forests. During the 

 day they lie concealed in the midst of thick tangled 

 undergrowth, rank matted grass, extended full 

 length along the branch of a tree or in a hollow in 

 the interior of the trunk. Now and then they are 

 found in rock crevices, or down holes excavated by 

 other animals, and which the original occupants 

 have abandoned. 



The genet is silent and secretive, in the extreme, 

 in its ways. Its body is long and slender, and its 

 legs are comparatively short, and when stalking its 

 prey its nose is thrust forward, the body elongated 



4 



