310 



CAPE JACKAL. 



Canis Mesomelas. C. Cauda recta, corpore ferrugineo, fascia 



dorsali nigra. Lin. Syst. Nat. Gmel. p. 73. 

 Ferruginous Dog, with strait tail, and black dorsal band. 

 Der Capische Schakal. Schreber saength. i. p. 370. tab. 95. 

 Cape Schakal. Pennant Quadr. i. p. 265. 



THIS animal is said to be not uncommon about 

 the Cape of Good Hope, and is by some con- 

 founded with the Jackal, to which, indeed, it 

 seems to be very nearly allied. The head is yel- 

 lowish-brown,, with a mixture of black and white 

 hairs, especially on the hind part ; the nape of the 

 neck and the whole length of the back black, 

 with a mixture of white: the black band com- 

 mences at the top of the neck, and widens over 

 the shoulders, in an almost rhomboid form, from 

 thence decreasing to the tail, along the upper 

 part of which it is still continued in form of a 

 stripe. This black dorsal band is clouded on each 

 side in the broadest part with whitish or greyish 

 undulations, and a similar mixture is visible on 

 the middle of the band. The general colour of 

 the animal is bright foxy or ferruginous, with the 

 throat, breast, abdomen, and insides of the thighs 

 whitish : the tail is not unlike that of a fox, but 

 rather less bushy, and is of the same bright ferru- 

 ginous as the upper parts of the body, with three 

 transverse black bands towards the end, and a 

 black tip. The length of this animal is two feet 

 and three quarters, exclusive of the tail, which 



