COUSIN JACK 193 



After he has been hunted that distance, he turns as a 

 rule, and if hounds have not changed, works back to 

 the place from which he started, beating up every 

 covert on the way. When we bring back a beaten 

 jackal to a covert, we may be sure that he will not 

 leave again, although it is by no means certain that 

 we shall kill him. 



In creeping, crawling, twisting, turning before 

 hounds a tired jackal has no equal. Only at the last 

 moment will he take to the open again, and if we 

 view him and there is no riot in the covert, we shall 

 pick him up. It is probable, however, that jackals 

 change their haunts from time to time. When they 

 have hunted over a country it is certain that they 

 must frighten away the smaller animals. Jackals are 

 very like wolves in miniature, and their habits and 

 methods of hunting are very similar. The jackal is, 

 I think, a more difficult animal to kill with hounds 

 than the fox. He does not play the game as the fox 

 does. He is as cunning, as intelligent, as wild, but 

 he is far less sophisticated, and it used to please me 

 to think that perhaps in the chase of the jackal we 

 saw hunting as it was in an earlier phase than that at 

 which it has now arrived in England. 



To begin with, we started early : for the more 

 distant meets four o'clock was not too soon. It was 







