94 NATURAL HISTORY ESSAYS 



The Cape hunting-dog {Lycaon pictus) — wilde 

 honde of the Boers, matshabidi of the Basutos, 

 manoab of the Arabs — stands about twenty-seven 

 inches high at the shoulder, and measures about four 

 feet and a half from the tip of the snout to the end of 

 the twelve-inch tail. The muzzle is short and squarish; 

 the head broad and flat, with wide ears, which are 

 as neatly rounded as if cropped with scissors. The 

 legs are long, and the feet are remarkable for bearing 

 but four toes apiece ; the tail carries a small brush. 

 In sharp contrast to the crisp coat of the hunting 

 leopard above mentioned, the fur of the hysena dog 

 is remarkable for its woolly texture, being quite 

 devoid of long hairs. The curious appearance of 

 the wild hound is heightened by its coloration, which 

 consists of a varying mixture of ochraceous grey, 

 black, and white. No two are alike, neither does 

 the pattern correspond on both sides of the same 

 animal, in which circumstance the wild dog resembles 

 the ocelot tiger-cat of America.^ There is usually 

 (by no means always) a black line — the linea Jaciem 

 percurrens of Burchell — running from between the 

 eyes backwards over the neck. Most individuals 

 have the terminal half of the tail white, though this 



1 Tliis remarkable indindiial variation of the Cape liuiiting-dog 

 seems utterly unknown to most illustrators of natural history books. 

 Even in the l>est of these one may see n pack of liounds portrayed as 

 huntinf^ an antelope, each animal beinj,' an exact replica of its fellows, as 

 if all had been drawn from a sin;,de skin ! Sir Cornwallis Harris, a 

 practical naturalist, does not make this error. In his "Portraits of the 

 Game and Wild Animals of Soutiiern Africa" will be found delineated a 

 small pack of differently coloured individuals. 



