THE GREY-FOOTED SQUIRREL 



fruit or nuts. It grew very fond of cooked meat, 

 and even ate it raw. There was a small cavity in 

 the tree-trunk in its cage, and when it had more 

 food than it could eat at the time, it stored the 

 remainder in this cavity and ate it as required. 

 In their native haunts these Squirrels are both 

 diurnal and nocturnal, or, in other words, they are 

 active both day and night. 



The Grey-footed Squirrel may be identified as 

 •follows : 



(1) Fur soft, short and thick^ of a speckled 

 yellowish-grey with a blackish tinge, owing to the 

 majority of the hairs of the back being ringed sub- 

 terminally with black. Under parts dingy white ; 

 body unstriped ; head the same colour as the 

 back ; whiskers black ; ears covered sparingly with 

 hairs, and oval in shape. The legs, which are paler 

 than the back, and grey in colour, are armed with 

 short curved claws. 



(2) Body 8| inches, not including the tail, which 

 is about 8 inches long to the end of the terminal 

 hairs. The tail is bushy and the hairs are pale 

 yellow ; each hair has two rings of black, giving 

 the entire tail a dark hue. 



There is a sub-species or local race of the 

 Grey -footed Squirrel named Paraxerus cefapi 

 sindi. 



53 



