THE GENET 
to its fullest stretch, and the long tail held straight 
out along the ground behind. Creeping silently 
along in this attitude, with abdomen almost touching 
the ground, it has at first sight the appearance of a 
snake. 
The food of the genet consists of any creature 
which it may be able to overpower, such for instance 
as hares, dassies, rats, mice, birds, their nestlings 
and eggs, as well as sundry lizards, snakes, eggs, and 
insects. In captivity they thrive best on a meat 
diet. In the vicinity of the stock farmer these 
genets are apt to become a pest, owing to their 
fondness for poultry. The head.and body of the 
genet being so slender, it is able to squeeze through 
comparatively small holes. Where the head can 
go, the body can follow. 
During my sojourn on a Dutch friend’s farm we 
were, one morning, startled during breakfast by the 
excited ejaculations of a coloured servant woman. 
In a most excited way she related that when she 
was feeding the fowls she saw the remains of half 
a dozen hens on the floor, and on going into the 
fowl-house to investigate more closely, something 
hissed loudly and fiercely. She declared it was a 
huge snake. Arming ourselves with sticks, we pro- 
ceeded to the fowl-house, and a glance showed us 
that some creature other than a snake had been 
there during the night, for the partially-devoured 
bodies of six fowls were ample evidence of the fact. 
We stepped inside, carefully closing the door 
5 
