220 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XII. 



No. XIV.— NOTES ON A JACKAL CtJB. 



Some time back a jackal whelp was brought to me for sale. It appeared to 

 be about a month old, and had been captured a short time previously outside 

 a small patch of jungle. As it was fairly tame, and I was anxious to compare 

 its habits with those of an ordinary puppy, I purchased it, and have now had 

 it under constant observation for three months. The following notes regard- 

 ing it may possibly prove of some general interest. In about a week after 

 " Jacky " had arrived, she became sufficiently tame to be allowed to run about 

 the compound, and from the first she showed the greatest and most untiring 

 delight in play. She would run after a stone when thrown ; take it 

 up and race about with it ; often bring it back to the point from which it 

 was thrown, drop it, and then race after the next throw. When 

 tired of playing with the same stone or stick, she would roll over it 

 on her back several times, as dogs often do in the case of a dead rat or bad 

 fish : this always appeared to give her a fresh interest in the object, and the 

 game with it would be renewed. " Jacky " soon made friends with a young 

 fox-terrier nearly twice her size, and they enjoyed great games together, 

 constantly racing round and round over open grass, the terrier often being 

 the hunted one. When wishing to show pleasure she smiles and wags her 

 tail, and then often rolls over on her back. She is very clean in ler habits, 

 and her coat up to now has no disagreeable smell. Her tail is usually carried 

 low, but when approaching her playfellow (the fox-t?rrier) slowly, it is often 

 carried high up above the back, and when she sees him coming from a 

 distance, she will constantly crouch down and then bounce up at him as he 

 comes up. In one special habit she differs from dogs, which is she never 

 turns round and round before lying down, as is so common with dogs, 

 and when lying asleep she does so at full length and never curled up. 

 When she first arrived, she, small as she was, often treated me to the well- 

 known jackal yell, especially at night ; but after a short time she completely 

 gave up doing this, even when her kindi*ed did so close round about her at 

 night. When wanting food she whines exactly similar to a dog. Her manners 

 at meal-times are not pleasant — bolting her food, and snarling, growling and 

 snapping at all who may approach. She hides a bone by making a hole in 

 soft earth with her nose, and then pushing it in with her nose and covering it 

 over with earth, exactly in the same way as a small dog does. While watching 

 her many and engaging ways, one cannot but be struck with the certainty 

 that her ancestors must have largely contributed in forming the instincts of 

 the domestic dog, 



G, S. RODON, Major. 

 Dhabwak, Matfy 1898. 



