476 
CARNIVORES. 
the eastern portion of the Cape Colony to Mozambique, the colour of the under¬ 
surface of the body is grizzled grey. 
THE BANDED MUNGOOSE (g nat. size'. 
The Meerkat. 
Genus Suricata. 
The meerkat of the Cape Colonists, or suricate as it is frequently called by 
zoologists (Suricata tetradactyla), while agreeing with the two genera last 
mentioned in the absence of a groove below the nose, differs from both in having 
but four toes on each foot. It is further characterised by having three premolar 
teeth on each side of the upper jaw, and four on the lower jaw, so that the total 
number of teeth is thirty-six. The soles of the hind-feet are naked. 
The meerkat is a small animal of slender form, with a tail of about half the 
length of the head and body. The fur is long and soft, of a light grizzled grey 
colour, with black transverse stripes across the hinder part of the back, the under¬ 
parts rufous, the head nearly white (except a black mark round the eyes), the ears 
black, and the tail yellowish, with a black tip. The longer hairs are broadly 
ringed with black and white, the white predominating. The transverse light 
and dark bands on the loins are formed, according to Mr. O. Thomas, by the regular 
arrangement of the hairs, by which the white and black rings come opposite to 
each other on adjacent hairs. The same writer observes that meerkats may be 
distinguished at a glance from all other mungooses by their elongated nose and 
claws, as well as by their peculiar coloration, no other species having ears differing 
in colour from the rest of the head. 
Meerkats appear to be confined to the Cape Colony, extending at least as far 
