THE HY^NA DOG. 



"A kind of wild dogs, which were here called jackalls, 

 and are the same as Samson's foxes, mentioned in Scripture, 

 frequented these plains in large troops. They caught a great 

 number of the wild goats (or antelopes) that abound here as 

 well as of ostriches, in the hunting of which they set up a 

 regular cry, surrounding the game first at a distance and 

 approaching nearer to it by degrees. They likewise committed 

 great havoc amongst the farmers' sheep, unless these were 

 carefully guarded by shepherds furnished with firearms." 



Thtmbergs Travels, ii, p. lo. 



Strong, active, blood-thirsty and daring, few beasts 

 of prey are so deservedly dreaded as the savage 

 hounds so graphically described by Thunberg: for 

 in spite of the good man's assertions these "jackalls" 

 are by no means the same as Samson's foxes, but in 

 their organised method of hunting and in their 

 sheep-worrying proclivities are clearly identical with 

 the Cape hunting-dog (or hyaena dog), a brute well 

 known both for its ferocious temper and for its 

 cunning in the chase. True jackals are far too small 

 to pull down ostriches or even largish antelopes: the 

 wild dog on the contrary has the stature of a tall 

 greyhound and will readily overcome quarry three 

 times its own size.^ 



1 Tlie mistake lias recurred again and again. In Vol. IX, of 

 the "Hoys' Own Annual" a tine picture of a geinsbok and some 

 unmistakable hunting-dogs is entitled "Gemslx)k and Jackals." The 

 "jackals" of Count Potocki's Somaliland trip appear to have l^en 

 wild dogs, wliile the "hy;vnas" described in lialdwin's "African Hunting" 

 as running down and devouring an inyala antelope likewise seem to have 

 been hy;ena doga. 



