NOTES 
AND 
COMMENTS. 
THE Hon. Anicn FousaAmMBn, whose original 
The Fan-tailed palnting of her pet squirrel is 
Squirrel. reproduced as a frontispiece to 
this number, has also supplied us with the 
following notes and the accompanying illus- 
trations: “The Ground, or Fan-tailed Squirrel 
is a native of South Africa, where it lives 
in holes which it scoops out among the rocks. 
The specimen in my possession was caught 
near Kroonstad, in the Orange River 
Colony, and I 
have had him 
since last July. 
His length, from 
the nose to the 
tip of the 
bail, ie 
eighteen 
inches, of 
which the 
tail occu- 
ples one- 
half. Its head is like a marmot’s, 
the ears being externally mere 
shts; but the stripes on its sides 
remind one of the ground squirrel » 
of North America. The eyes 
are large and black, the head and 
upper parts reddish-brown, slightly 
tinged with grey. There is a 
white stripe on each side, extend- 
ing from the shoulder to the thigh, 
below which is a broad streak of 
chestnut fading into cream on 
the under-parts, where the fur is 
longer and softer than above, it being some- 
what harsh and scanty on the rest of the body. 
But its chief glory is its tail. Reddish at 
the base, it becomes greyer towards the tip. 
The outside edge is creamy white; then 
comes a band of black, specially broad and 
Characteristic 
deep at the tip, and the centre is beautifully 
variegated with black, reddish and white. 
When asleep the tail is curled round over the 
head; when running it is usually kept carefully 
off the ground. Sometimes it is arched over 
the back. somewhat after the fashion of our 
English squirrel, and it can be curled over, 
with every hair erect, in a peculiar manner 
which irresistibly reminds the spectator of a 
fan, whence its popular name. This beautiful 
appendage is most carefully looked after, being 
taken in the two front paws and thoroughly 
cleaned from end to end. ‘Jacky,’ or to give 
him his full name, ‘John Vanderpomp,’ is 
a most affectionate little animal, gentle as a 
pet dog to his mustress, and will allow himself 
to be pulled about and played with, without 
any attempt to use his teeth, which, as I know 
from former experience, are pretty sharp. 
He lives in a large tin-lned cage with a wire 
run 3 feet long by 14 feet wide; it is built 
on wheels, and has even then to be raised 
off the ground if the 
latter be at all moist, 
as, though he does 
not require any great 
heat, being accus- 
tomed to so dry a 
climate the slghtest 
THE FAN- 
TAILED 
SQUIRREL. 
Some 
Poses. 
410 
