49 



THE SIDE-STRIPED JACKAL. 



CAWS ADUSTUS. 



Canis adustus, Sundevall, Ofversigt af Kongl. Vetenskaps-Akademiens 

 Forhandlingar, Tredje Argangen, p. 121 (1846) ; Peters, 

 Reise nach Mossambique, Zool. Saugeth. p. 125. 



Canis lateralis, Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1870, p. 279, pi. 23. 



Vulpes adusta, Gray, P. Z. S. 1868, p. 515 ; id. Cat. of Carnivorous 

 Mammalia, p. 203. 



THIS elegant species had its most marked character, its light-coloured 

 lateral stripe, first adequately called attention to by Dr. Sclater, who 

 proposed for it the new name of C. lateralis. It is, however, we think 

 the same kind of animal as that which was described by Sundevall and 

 named Canis adustus. Not only do the skins preserved in the British 

 Museum show that there are great individual differences as to the 

 distinctness of the lateral stripe, but the very skin of the type of the 

 species, which, when it was figured, had the stripe very plain and 

 distinct, has since come almost entirely to lose it. This typical skin is 

 preserved in our National Collection ; but we have not thought well to 

 have it represented on our Plate XIII., because of its present defective 

 condition. We have preferred to figure the skin of a fine male brought 

 by Mr. H. H. Johnston from Kilimanjaro, which well shows the 

 typical character of the species in its most perfect form. The indi- 

 viduals described by Sundevall and Peters were doubtless examples 

 in which the lateral stripe was as little noticeable as that of the type of 

 the species has now become. The character by which C. adustus 

 most differs from all the other Jackals is the dark colour of the hinder 

 surface of the ears, and this character also exists in the striped spe- 

 cimens, which cannot be doubted to be examples of the form called 

 C. lateralis by Sclater. 



