55' 



CARNIVORES. 



much less so than the fox. The wild dog preys both by night and day, but chiefly 

 by day. Six, eight, or ten unite to hunt down their victim, maintaining the chase 

 by their powers of smell rather than by the eye. . . . The buansu does not burrow 

 like the wolf or the fox, but reposes and breeds in the recesses and natural cavities 

 of the rocks." After stating that the number in a pack may occasionally be as 

 many as twenty, Mr. Blanford observes that these wild dogs " live principally upon 

 deer of various kinds and wild pigs in India, and on wild sheep and antelopes in 



INDIAN WILD DOG (k nat. size). 



Tibet. Many sambar and spotted deer are killed by them, whilst occasionally nilgai 

 and Indian antelopes fall victims. Wild dogs avoid the neighbourhood of man, 

 and consequently but rarely attack domestic animals ; occasionally, however, they 

 kill sheep, goats, and cattle, and Jerdon mentions one instance, and M'Master 

 another, of their pulling down a tame buffalo. I came across a third case myself 

 in the jungles east of Bawda, and I was curious to see how so large an animal had 

 been destroyed. There were but a few tooth-marks about the nose and throat, and 

 some of the pack had evidently attacked the buffalo in front, while others tore it 

 open. This is probably their usual way of killing large animals ; they have been 

 seen to snap at the flanks of a number running." It was stated by Hodgson that 



