SOUTH AFRICAN MEERKATS 
upon it and crushes the head, which it then eats, poison and 
all. 
The other ichneumons of both Africa and Asia differ from these 
two only in minor particulars, mainly of color. An Abyssinian 
one sports an extraordinary pure white tail, shaped like that of 
a horse! One East Indian species distinguishes itself by a 
diet of frogs. Certain more different ones live on the West 
Coast of Africa, and a curiously distinct group is native to 
Madagascar. An aberrant species, the suricate, or ‘‘meerkat,” 
of South Africa, is a pet on almost every Boer farm, — and it 
is no wonder, after reading Mrs. Martin’s account of it: — 
WHITE-TAILED ICHNEUMON. 
“Tn 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 their long, curved black claws. They Rieteats: 
are devoted sun worshipers, and in the carly morning, before 
it is daylight, they emerge from their burrows, and wait in rows until their 
divinity appears, when they bask joyfully in his beams. They are very 
numerous on the Karoo, and, as you ride or drive along through the veldt, 
you often come upon little colonies of them sitting up sunning themselves, 
and looking in their quaint and pretty favorite attitude like tiny dogs beg- 
ging. . The quaint, old-fashioned little fellow 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 made and spotlessly clean; his tiny feet, ears, 
and nose are all most daintily and delicately finished off; and his broad 
circle of black, bordering his large dark eye, serves like the antimony of 
157 
