CHAPTER X 



COUSIN JACK 



THE jackal is more nearly related to the dog than to 

 the fox, indeed the animal is in the direct line of 

 the pedigree of the dog, and it is said that the jackal 

 and dog breed freely together, which, as we have 

 seen, the dog and the fox will not do. Yet though 

 I have spent many years in India and have hunted 

 the jackal with both greyhounds and foxhounds, and 

 thus often found myself in those places where jackals 

 are most common, I have seen only a few dogs that 

 look like jackal hybrids and have never killed a jackal 

 that showed any trace of the cross. Yet jackals are 

 commonly found near villages where pariah dogs of 

 both sexes wander at perfect liberty. The assertion 

 of this cross is made by naturalists of repute, but 

 such crosses apparently do not take place except 

 in the case of animals in confinement. Now we 

 know that the wolf and the dog cross freely, and the 

 sledge dogs of the north have much wolf blood in 



N 2 



