17G 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE- GOSSIP. 



jungle and drive out the victim, which in most 

 cases tries to escape by the way it entered, and thus 

 falls into the snare previously laid for it. I have 

 been informed by natives, who have had every 

 opportunity of watching the movements of these 

 animals, that when they attack a hare, or some such 

 animal, in an open space or Patena, where there is 

 no brushwood or jungle, they surrouud it, thus 

 forming a regular circle ; then raising their loud 

 and continued cries and with incessant restless 

 leaps, they go round and round, narrowing their 

 circles each time, with their eyes fixed upon their 

 victim, which at last, exhausted with terror and 



Fig. 115. Skull of Ceylon Jackal (Canis aureus), showing horn 



stupefied by their-movements, makes no exertion to 

 escape, and falls an easy prey to their voracity. 

 I3ut, in addition to minor and ignoble prey, the 

 jackal rests under the imputation of attacking and 

 bringing down the elk (Rusa Aridotelis), an animal 

 of about 5 ft. in height, stoutly built, and endowed 

 with very strong and swift limbs, in fact, it much 

 resembles the red deer of Scotland in appearance. 



Jackals, like most other carnivora, when they are 

 met with in single numbers, are very timid and 

 cowardly, always shuuning the presence of man, 

 never voluntarily intruding upon his domains, and 

 making a very hasty retreat when perceived. But, 

 however, when they roam in packs and are pressed 

 by hunger, they get very bold indeed, and instances 

 have occurred of their entering houses at night, 

 being attracted by the smell of food. An uncle of 

 mine, who was living in a place infested by these 

 animals, went through the following adventure, 

 which well illustrates that they will even attack 

 man when he is in a helpless condition. One very 

 hot evening, having thrown himself on an easy- 

 chair which was standing in the verandah of the 

 house, he fell asleep ; at 10 o'clock, however, feel- 

 ing something cold and slimy touching his face, 

 he woke up and, to his inexpressible honor, found 

 he was surrounded on all sides by jackals, which 

 had been licking his face and pawing him, evidently 

 to ascertain if he was dead or not. The predica- 

 ment was ccrfainiy not a very pleasaut one. The 

 first thing that entered his mind in the agitation of 



the moment was to stand up and wave his hands 

 about, in the hope of scaring them away. But no: 

 a bit of it ; it only served to excite them all the 

 more ; with tails and ears erect, at the same time 

 uttering a low, growling, and hissing sound, they 

 scampered rouud about him in a most hostile 

 manner. It was only by a stealthy retreat to an 

 adjoining room, where he locked himself in, that he 

 effected his escape and left the jackals outside to con- 

 template upon the sad loss of their would-be meal. 



Though strictly nocturnal in their habits, jackals 

 are to be met with in broad daylight, not in packs, 

 but only one or two stragglers ; at which time they 

 make destructive forays on the 

 poultry of the villagers, which 

 are generally allowed to wander 

 about and pick up what they 

 can. On one occasion I was 

 watching some fine large 

 turkeys that were feeding just 

 in the vicinity of our house, 

 when a jackal sprang out of 

 an adjoining thicket, and 

 carried off one of the turkeys. 

 On being pursued it was won- 

 derful to witness how rapidly 

 it got along with its weighty 

 prey, almost as large as itself, 

 keeping very close in cover, and rarely venturing out 

 in the open. It is said that they are subject to hydro- 

 phobia, and that cattle die in consequence of being 

 bitten by them. Is it not more probable that the 

 death of the cattle may be attributed to neglect and 

 exposure in a moist and variable climate, especially 

 as the natives do not think it expedient to afford 

 them any cover at night, than to the bite of a jackal?* 

 Iustauces in Ceylon have often occurred in the case 

 of the jackal, which show to a great extent that 

 indiscriminate suckling of the young of one animal 

 by the parent of another ; their affection in this 

 particular is undoubted, but whether it exceeds that 

 of any other animals I am not able to state. This, 

 so far from being an evidence of parental attach- 

 ment individually, is, I think, somewhat incon- 

 sistent with the existence of such a passion to any 

 extraordinary degree. White, in his ".Natural 

 History of Selborne," speaking of a leveret having 

 been nursed by a cat, whose kittens had been re- 

 cently drowned, states that c: this strange affection 

 was probably occasioned by those tender maternal 

 feelings which the loss of her kittens had awakened 

 in her breast ; and by the complacency and ease 

 she derived to herself from procuring her teats 

 to be drawn, which were too much distended with 

 milk, till from habit she became as much delighted 



* At my departure from the island in 18/1 a native disco- 

 vered and captured two young jackals, and left in their place 

 a couple of pups, which the mother nursed and brought up 

 to maturity, so that in all probability there will be a race of 

 wild dogs. 



