192 
THE MEEREAT. 
generally carries tire food into tire most secluded hiding-place that it can find, and then com- 
mences its meal in solitude and darkness. The color of the Moongus is a gray liberally frecked 
with darker hairs, so as to produce a very pleasing mixture of tints. It is not so large an 
animal as its Egyptian relative. 
THE MOONGUS . — Herpestes griseus. 
The grizzled markings upon the fur of the Nyula are of a singularly beautiful character, 
and form a closely set zigzag pattern over the entire surface of the head, body, and limbs. 
The pattern is very like that which is seen in some woven fabrics, or fine basket-work. 
Upon the back and body this pattern is tolerably large, but upon the head it becomes grad- 
ually smaller, and upon the upper portion of the nose is almost microscopically small, though 
as perfect and uniform as that upon the body, so that it is among the most elegantly colored 
examples of the Ichneumons. The paws are dark, and devoid of that pretty variegation which 
extends over the upper surface of the animal. 
The word Ichneumon is Greek, and literally signifies a “tracker.” 
ME ERKAT.— Cynictis levaUlantii. 
Veuy closely allied to the Ichneumon, but differing from it in several points, the 
Meeekat has been placed in the same genus with that animal by Cuvier and others, but has 
been separated by later naturalists, because there are only four toes on the hinder feet, and the 
