SPECIES AND VARIETIES. 653 



one of their number is assailed, and utters a cry of distress, 

 all who are within hearing hasten to the rescue, and, if they 

 are able to master the enemy, fall upon him. They combine 

 to protect themselves from attack, and join in the pursuit of 

 the domestic dogs which they may wish to chase away. These 

 creatures are unmolested by the Mahommedans, who, al- 

 though they hold the dog to be unclean, will not take away 

 his life ; but sometimes they are hunted by English sports- 

 men after the manner of their country, either by common 

 dogs or fox-hounds. They are easily run down by the former 

 when at a distance from their burrows, and, in the case of 

 hounds, do not afford the same sport as the hardy fox of 

 Europe. They make, however, desperate resistance, biting 

 very fiercely the dogs that come up to them ; and when at 

 length they are overpowered, it is said they will pretend to be 

 slain, and allow themselves to be pulled about as if dead, as 

 is the case with the polecat and some other animals in this 

 country. 



The Jackal is eminently susceptible of domestication. The 

 offensive odour proper to him in the natural state goes away, 

 and he speedily acquires the manners of other dogs. But he 

 is taught to bark with difficulty, and so is little suited for 

 watching. He is further very timid, so that jackals are not 

 fitted to form a useful class of dogs, though some of the Tur- 

 coman tribes, according to Pallas, have no other kind for 

 watching their flocks. From the wide diffusion of this ani- 

 mal, his familiarity, and near resemblance to the common 

 dogs, it was long an opinion of many naturalists, that he was 

 the parent stock of the domestic races. This opinion is now 

 generally abandoned ; but yet it is probable that the blood of 

 the Jackal has, in numerous cases, been mingled with that of 

 the domestic races of the countries which he inhabits. 



From the Jackals, and other diurnal Canidse, there is a 

 gradation to the true Foxes, forming an intermediate group. 

 In India they are usually regarded as small jackals ; but in 

 the countries where jackals do not exist, they are naturally 



