172 CLASS MAMMALIA. 



it is rather broader than the others, of which there are 

 three on each side, but the lowest on each side is not dis- 

 tinctly defined or spotted ; the whole under parts are of a 

 dingy-white, slightly fulvous ; the tail is two inches long, 

 indistinctly banded with dark-brown and dingy-white, the 

 tip being of the latter hue. 



Of the Meerkats of Southern Africa, Mr. Burchell says, 

 these are a species of Squirrel, of about the size of a com- 

 mon Squirrel. It has no outward ears, and its body is very 

 thinly covered with short coarse hair, which is brittle, and 

 may easily be rubbed off; but the tail, which is longer than 

 the body, is furnished with long-spreading hairs, as in the 

 European kind. It was seen to live chiefly on the roots of 

 plants, which it scratched up with its fore-feet. It is com- 

 mon in some parts of the colony, and being a pretty little 

 animal, is sometimes domesticated. 



The genus Sciurus, or the Squirrels, includes a great 

 many species and varieties, an enumeration of which, accu- 

 rately referred to one or the other description, is no very 

 easy task. 



Animals extensively located, like the Squirrels, are gene- 

 rally observed to be most subject to deviate into varieties ; 

 nor can we doubt that climate and circumstances are 

 powerful agents in this operation. How many admitted 

 species owe their existence to this cause must ever, in a 

 great measure, be matter of conjecture ; analogy seems 

 to lead to a conclusion that very many do, and when time 

 and succession have, as it were, consecrated a variety into 

 a permanent race, we may be fully warranted in regarding 

 it as a distinct species. 



A description of the Common Squirrel, in addition to 

 what is said elsewhere, is unnecessary. It is an animal of 

 extreme cleanliness, occupied, without ceasing, in polishing 

 the fur with its fore-paws. When still and awake, it sits 



