l68 HOME LIFE ON AN OSTRICH FARM. 



One of our meerkats was the devoted ally of the 

 turkeys, and would go out into the veldt with them 

 every day; accompanying them on all their wanderings, 

 and apparently looking upon himself as their herd. He 

 would come trotting home with th«m in the evening, 

 full of his own importance, and evidently taking to him- 

 self the credit of having brought them all safely back. 



Another was fond of rambling off all by himself, 

 sometimes going a very long way from home. On one 

 occasion some friends from a distant farm, driving to 

 call on us, saw near the road what they took for a wild 

 meerkat, and set their collie at it. But animals have 

 a wonderful instinct for detecting the diflference 

 between tame and wild creatures ; and good Bob, 

 dearly though he loved a scamper after any of the 

 swift-footed denizens of the veldt, saw at once that this 

 was not lawful game. So, instead of the expected 

 chase, there was a friendly and demonstrative greeting 

 between the two animals. The dog stood wagging his 

 tail at the meerkat, the meerkat sat up " quarking '' at 

 the dog, and our friends, guessing that the little 

 creature belonged to us, took him up into their Cape 

 cart, and brought him to his home. 



Another meerkat, being so incorrigibly savage that 

 handling him was always attended with serious damage 

 to the fingers, had to wear a muzzle, improvised for 



him by T-^ out of one of the little wire baskets 



made for the spouts of teapots. 



Another, though young and tiny, was a born tyrant ; 

 displaying the most overbearing and imperious of 



