NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA 
handled, but it is easily alarmed, and if roughly 
handled it will bite viciously. At the Port Elizabeth 
Museum we have kept them alive from time to time. 
They are showy little animals—sharp, alert, and full 
of energy. They thrive on a diet of meat and eggs. 
The general colour of the Bushy-tailed Meerkat 
is reddish-yellow. The fur is slaty at the base, 
then yellow, the tips of the longer hairs being 
tinged brown and white. The under parts are 
whitish; chin and throat white; ears brown 
margined with white hairs; limbs paler than the 
back; five dark claws on each of the fore limbs, 
and four to the hind limbs. ‘Tail long and covered 
with rather lengthy hairs, which are yellow at the 
base and tip, with a black broad band between. 
The tip of the tail is white, but not invariably so. 
Length from tip of nose to root of tail about 
sixteen inches. 
The Bushy-tailed Meerkat has been divided into 
several local races owing to slight variations in the 
colour and size. They are as follows : 
Cynictis penicillata intensa. @ 
3 is steedmannti. 
Ke . ogilbyt. 
. 5 pallidtor. 
” om leptura. 
Another species of Bushy-tailed Meerkat, known 
as Selous’ Meerkat (Cymictis selowsi), occurs in 
Rhodesia, and up the East Coast. 
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