MUNGOOSES. 



477 



north as Algoa Bay. In regard to their habits, we may quote from Mrs. A. Martin, 

 who, in her work entitled Home Life on an Ostrich Farm, states that these animals 

 form most admirable and amusing little pets, nearly every homestead on the Karru 

 having one or more of these creatures. In their wild state the meerkats live in 

 colonies or warrens, burrowing deep holes in the sandy soil, and " feeding chiefly 

 on succulent bulbs, which they scratch up with the long, curved, black claws on 

 their fore -feet. They are devoted sun -worshippers, and in the early morning, 

 before it is daylight, they emerge from their burrows, and wait in rows till their 

 divinity appears, when they bask joyfully in his beams. They are very numerous 

 on the Karru, and, as you ride or drive along through the veldt, you often come 



THE MEERKAT ( nat. size). 



upon little colonies of them sitting up sunning themselves, and looking, in their 

 quaint and pretty favourite attitude, like tiny dogs begging. As you approach, 

 they look at you fearlessly and impudently, allowing you to come quite close ; then, 

 when their confiding manner has tempted you to get down in the wild hope of 

 catching one of them, suddenly all pop so swiftly into their little holes that they 

 seem to have disappeared by magic." 



Although in the Cape it appears that the name meerkat is also often applied 

 to the thick -tailed mungoose (Cynictis), it is the true meerkat alone which makes 

 such a charming pet. "The quaint, old-fashioned little fellow," continues Mrs. 

 Martin, "is as neatly made as a small bird; his coat, of the softest fur, with 

 markings not unlike those of a tabby cat, is always well kept and spotlessly clean ; 

 his tiny feet, ears, and nose are all most daintily and delicately finished off; and 

 the broad circle of black bordering his large dark eye serves, like the antimony of 



