CHAPTER III. 



II. THE GAME— CARNIVORA, PACHYDERMATA, ETC. 



JACKALS, TWO VARIETIES: I. SiDE-STRIPED {Cattis adustus) \ 2. BlACK- 

 BACKED {Can'is tnesotnelas). — Although these animals are fairly plentiful they 

 are not often seen, unless one is out late in the evening and very early in the 

 morning, for, like all predatory animals, they are nocturnal in their habits. 



Sometimes one will be put up in the daytime in a patch of long grass where it 

 has been lying asleep. Occasionally they will be heard at night, but not so often as 

 in India, where one can hear jackals calling nearly every night. 



In the cold season their skins are very pretty, and if enough can be obtained 

 they make a nice kaross or rug. When locusts are about jackals eat quantities of 

 them, and they are not above stealing a fowl when the opportunity offers. 



Hunting Dog {Lycaeon pictus). — Old writers on African sport and travel used 

 sometimes to refer to this animal as a wolf, and I have seen the hyaena similarly 

 named. Hunting dogs in their habits resemble wolves, for they go about in packs 

 and range the country in .their search for food. 



Once they get on the track of an animal they seldom leave it, and the only thing 

 that might stop them is running water. In this country they do not interfere with 

 human beings as they are said to do in the south. 1 have shot a number of them, 

 and never found them in the least dangerous, but they might be if they wished, for 

 they are powerful animals and very fast. I heard of a case, which I believe to be 

 true, of a pack killing a lion, and there is no doubt that lions fear them, as do all 

 other animals. The largest pack I ever saw consisted of about fifty animals, but the 

 usual number is from ten to twenty. As soon as a pack appears in a district all the 

 game seems to vanish, and they do not return until the dogs have been gone 

 for some time. Although they are plucky animals, and one cannot help admiring 

 their sporting habits, they should be shot whenever possible on account of the damage 

 they do to more valuable game. Their colour is blotchy black, yellow, and white, and 

 they weigh from 6olb. to yolb. 



HY^NA, two VARIETIES: I. SPOTTED {Hycena crocuta) ; 2. BROWN 

 {Hycena brunnea). — These animals are found all over Africa, although the brown 

 variety is very scarce in this country. 



