THE BUSHY-TAILED OR ROOI MEERKAT 
courage. It ‘is often hunted with terrier dogs, 
and if it should happen to take refuge in the de- 
serted burrow of an Aard Vark or Spring Hare, a 
trained terrier will go in after it and frequently 
succeed in dragging it out, not, however, without 
getting several severe bites about the lips and head. 
However, no dog can follow a meerkat down a 
burrow excavated by itself, as it is much too small. 
The only way to secure it in such situations is to 
laboriously dig it out. They can easily be captured 
alive by placing cage traps baited with meat near 
their holes. It has been stated these meerkats are 
never met with in the bush-veld. On the contrary, 
I have frequently observed them in bushy country, 
not in the dense native forests, but in the true 
bush-veld. Scores of times I have surprised them 
sunning themselves in the glades, and on the road- 
ways through the bush. The instant I came into 
view they bounded off to cover. 
Riding on the outskirts of bushy lands these 
meerkats may frequently be seen out a hundred 
yards or so upon the open veld in search of insects, 
reptiles, small mammals, the eggs and young of 
ground birds, which constitute their chief diet. 
On the slightest cause for alarm they make for the 
scrub with a series of graceful bounds. 
In the neighbourhood of Port Elizabeth the 
Bushy-tailed Meerkat is common, even in -he dense 
forests which have been planted by the Govern- 
ment Forest Department with a view of fixing the 
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