XXIII 



JACKALS, ETC. 



" The jackals' troop, in gathered cry, 

 Bay'd from afar complainingly, 

 With a mix'd and mournful sound, 

 Like crying babe, and beaten hound." 



Tfie Siege of Corinth. 



"Also in that country there be beasts taught of men to go into 

 waters, into rivers, and into deep stanks for to take fish ; the 

 which beast is but little, and men clepe them loirs." 



SIR JOHN MANDEVILLE. 



JACKALS, Canis aureus, are often spoken of as 

 though they were unmitigated nuisances, but there 

 is much to be said in their favour quite apart from 

 the fact of their being most efficient scavengers. 

 There may be places in which they abound to 

 an extent rendering their nocturnal concerts really 

 annoying, but, if there be, I have had no experience 

 of them, and must confess to having always regarded 

 them as a pleasing variety in the nightly din of 

 frogs and insects, and even to a certain regret 

 over their absence in the British Islands. The 

 intermittent character of their music prevents it 



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