24 WILD DOGS. 



but when within a few yards he thought better of it and 

 turned back and recommenced his howling, which brought 

 up another wolf to his assistance, and both howled and looked 

 extremely savage and seemed very much inclined to make 

 another dash after the antelope ; but the horsekeepers just then 

 came up and the wolves bolted. 



The natives believe that if the blood of a wolf is shed on 

 any cultivated land, that land becomes barren. 



Our Indian wolf (Canis pallipes) is a distinct species 

 from the European wolf, being somewhat smaller, the height 

 at shoulder about 26 inches ; length of head and body 37 

 inches ; tail 17 inches. It is of a hoary rufus or dirty reddish 

 white with some of the hairs tipped with black. Tail thin 

 and bushy, slightly black tipped ; ears rather small. Bland- 

 ford says that the fur is short with little or no woolly under- 

 lying fur. 



WILD DOGS. 



Wild dogs have decreased considerably in the last few 

 years, but I occasionally came across them in my rambles. 

 When they do appear, they become a regular pest to the 

 sportsman as well as to the natives, as they drive away all 

 the deer from the district ; the sambur has a most intense 

 dread of these poaching rascals and will leave a locality 

 for months after being hunted by them. The first I killed 

 was in 1855, when shooting on the Annamullies. Half way 

 between Peramba Colum and Takady, I saw an animal cross 

 the path which I thought was a leopard. I looked keenly 

 into the jungle, and in the grass some eighty or ninety paces 

 off saw something red, it looked so large that I thought it 



