240 MamMALiA OF INDIA. 
It has been supposed that there were two or three species of wild 
dog to be found within the limits of British India, but it is now, I think, 
conclusively settled that the Malayan and Indian species are one, and 
that those from Darjeeling and other hills, which showed variation, are 
the same, with slight differences caused by climate. They are certainly 
not canine in disposition ; the wolf and jackal are much more so, for in 
confinement they are as ill-conditioned brutes as it is possible to 
conceive. Those in the Regent’s Park Gardens are active, snappy’ 
snarly, wild-looking creatures. Hodgson writes of them: “ Those I 
kept in confinement, when their den was approached, rushed into the 
remotest corner of it; huddled one upon another, with their heads 
concealed as much as possible. I never dared to lay hands on them, 
but if poked with a stick they would retreat from it as long as they could, 
and then crush themselves into a corner, growling low, and sometimes, 
but rarely, seizing the stick and biting it with vehemence. After ten 
months’ confinement they were as wild and shy as the first hour I got 
them. ‘Their eyes emitted a strong light in the dark, and their bodies 
had the peculiar foetid odour of the fox and jackal in all its rankness.” 
McMaster sent one to the People’s Park, at Madras, which he obtained 
in Burmah, and says of her: “‘ Evangeline,’ as she is named, is certainly 
though an interesting and rare creature to have in a museum or wild- 
beast show, the most snarling, ill-mannered, and detestable beast I have 
ever owned.” ‘ Hawkeye,” whose most interesting paper on the wild 
dog appeared in the South of India Observer, of January 7th, 1869, 
alludes to “‘ Evangeline” in the following terms :—I saw. the beast at 
the People’s Park, and a more untameable wretch I never met with ; 
and why so fair a name for such a savage de’il, I know not.” It is 
strange that the most dog-like of the wild canines should refuse domes- 
tication when even the savage European wolf has become so attached 
as to pine during the absence of his master. Jesse, in his ‘ History of 
the British Dog,’ relates that a lady near Geneva had a tame wolf, which 
was so attached that when, on one occasion, she left home for a while 
he refused food and pined. On her return, when he heard her voice, he 
flew to meet her in an ecstasy of delight ; springing up, he placed a paw 
on each of her shoulders, and the next moment fell backwards and 
expired. The wild dog, however, refuses all endearments, and keeps his 
savage nature to the last. I have never heard of their attacking men, 
but few four-footed beasts, even of large size, escape them. Fortunately 
they are not as common as jackals, otherwise little game would be left 
in the country. During my residence in the Seonee district from 1857 
to 1864, I only came across them two or three times. Their mode of 
hunting has been described by various writers—Hodgson, Elliot, Jerdon, 
and others of less reliability—but one of the best descriptions, which I 
regret I have not space for iw extenso, is that to which I have already 
