g6 NATURAL HISTORY ESSAYS 



which was gregarious, not solitary, and preyed on 

 asses for preference — though when pressed by hunger 

 it ate corn and dourra — appears to have been a true 

 hysena; but the "Jackals of Commany and Aquambo" 

 which Bosnian mentions as taller than sheep, with 

 large flat heads and spotted coats, and able to 

 spring on high walls, appear to have been hunting- 

 dogs. Burchell, who brought home a living male 

 specimen (presented to him by Mr. Hesse), called it "a 

 new and distinct species of hysena"; probably from this 

 remark he has been wrongly credited with being the 

 discoverer of the species. As we have seen, Bosman 

 about 1704 noted it in West Africa; Thunberg in 

 1770-75 also observed the wild dog, though he 

 did not recoofnise it as distinct from " Samson's 

 foxes." In 1 8 14- 1 5 a skin from West Africa was 

 exhibited in Riddell's Museum; shortly afterwards 

 another specimen living in Exeter 'Change was 

 figured from life by Mr. Howitt. This latter animal 

 may have been the same that was subsequently 

 preserved in Bullock's Museum; if so it was the 

 "type" specimen, since the individual figured by 

 Temminck (the first describer of the species) was 

 purchased by him at the sale of that famous 

 collection. Temminck in 1820 ranked the hunting 

 dog with the hysenas, after a careful study of the one 

 which he purchased in London and figured in the 

 Ann. Gen. Set. Phys., III. (p. 54, t. 35). Col. 

 Hamilton Smith first recognised the true position of 



