268 LYCAON PICTUS. 



their growth, till it was found necessary to kill 

 them. 



Lycaon pictus (Canis pictus, Temm.) — Whether 

 the painted Lycaon be distinct, or a variety of loca- 

 tion and climate, for the sake of clearness we believe 

 it best to describe it separately. This race is the 

 Simir of Kordofan, and described by Riippel as 

 three feet two and a half inches long, the tail one 

 foot three inches and three-fourths, the ears four 

 inches eight lines, and the height at the shoulder 

 one foot ten inches. 



If the stuffed skin and published figure pourtray 

 the outline of the living animal, the Simir would 

 really represent a wild hound without the least ap- 

 proximation to the hygena, so conspicuous in the 

 Cape animal, and M. jRiippel seems never to have 

 been struck by this appearance ; consequently we 

 might believe the Kordofan variety so far differ- 

 ent, if we did not find the Marafeen, which we 

 take to be the same, considered by the Arabs as an 

 hyasna. In the present race the disposition of the 

 colours varies as in the former, with every indivi- 

 dual, excepting about the head, neck, and tip of 

 the tail, where, as before, black occupies the muz- 

 zle to the eyes, a streak of it passes over the fore- 

 head to the nape, and from the under jaw forms 

 another streak beneath the ears towards the shoul- 

 der; these marks are upon a pale tawny, which 

 passes in clouds over the body and limbs, generally 

 edged in with black : but on the Simir there ap- 

 pears a much greater proportion of white, particularly 



