SURICATE, or MEERKAT (Suricata tetradactyla)  , a small South African mammal of the civet family, ranging from Cape Colony to Algoa Bay . The head and body are about 14 in. long, and the tail half as much; the fur is long and soft, light grizzled grey in colour, and banded with black on the lower part of the back . Meerkats are sociable animals, living in holes in the rocks on the mountains, and burrowing in the sandy soil of the plains . They form amusing pets, and in a wild state, writes Mrs A . Martin, they feed chiefly on " succulent bulbs, which they scratch up with the long, curved, black claws on their fore-feet .