THE VOICE OF LYCAON 



solitary ; dogs as already mentioned, are friendly to 

 each other and gregarious. Indeed, the fondness of the 

 dog for man is held to be a mistake on the part of the 

 dog who considers his master to be a superior kind of dog, 

 ready for country excursions and the pursuit of game. 

 Bears, it will be remembered, are plantigrade, i.e. they 

 walk upon the palms of the hands, and the sole of the 

 feet. They may have a prehensile tail, which a dog never 

 has. Their intestine is not furnished with a blind 

 appendage, the caecum. The intestines of both cat 

 and dogs are so provided. There are points in the skull 

 and the teeth which differentiate the three groups which 

 the late President of the Zoological Society, Sir William 

 Flower, called respectively, Aeluroidea, Cynoidea, and 

 Arctoidea. Lycaon hunts in packs, whence its vernacular 

 name. These associations consist of some fifteen on an 

 average ; but as few as four, and as many as sixty have 

 been noted in one pack. They pursue their prey with 

 skill and unanimity : so quick are they in their move- 

 ments that the quarry is sighted (or smelt), caught, and 

 eaten before the indignant farmer or sportsman can come 

 come up with the depredators. The colour of this dog 

 is one of the most remarkable features. The ground 

 colour is a buffish yellow marked with irregular blotches 

 of dark brown. It has so distinct a likeness to an hyaena, 

 that the naturalist who first described and named this 

 dog, actually placed it with the hyaenas. It has only 

 four toes instead of the usual canine five. Its voice is 

 various ; it barks, chatters like a monkey, and says 

 " ho, ho," like " the second note of a cuckoo." 



BLUE AND WHITE FOXES 



The blue fox of commerce and of the Arctic regions is 

 the summer form of the white fox of the same quarter of 

 the globe. But it appears that this change of fur on the 

 approach of winter is by no means universal ; and some 



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